The Pantheon: From Antiquity to the Present Read online

  13 Licht 1968, pp. 35–58; Mark Wilson Jones, Principles of Roman Architecture, New Haven 2000, Chap. 10.

  14 The idea came to Lucos Cozza during restoration work in 1954, as reported in Licht 1968, pp. 45–46.

  15 Paul Davies, David Hemsoll, and Mark Wilson Jones, “The Pantheon: Triumph of Rome or Triumph of Compromise?” Art History 10, 1987, pp. 133–153; Wilson Jones 2000, Chap. 10.

  16 Wilson Jones 2000, pp.184 and 208.

  17 Lothar Haselberger, “Ein Giebelriss der Vorhalle des Pantheon. Die Werkrisse vor dem Augustusmausoleum,” Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Römische Abteilung 101, 1994, pp. 279–308.

  18 Licht 1968, pp. 48–58.

  19 Licht 1968, pp. 126–132; Doris Gruben and Gottfried Gruben, “Die Türe des Pantheon,” Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Römische Abteilung 104, 1997, pp. 3–74; Giovanni Belardi, ed., Il Pantheon: storia, tecnica, e restauro, Viterbo 2006, pp. 181–193.

  20 Gruben and Gruben 1997; Pieter Broucke, “The First Pantheon: Architecture and Meaning,” in Gerd Grasshoff, Michael Heinzelmann, and Markus Wäfler, eds., The Pantheon in Rome. Contributions to the Conference, Bern, November 9–12, 2006, Bern 2009, pp. 27–28.

  21 Licht 1968, pp. 59–84; Mark Wilson Jones, “The Pantheon and the Phasing of Its Construction,” in Grasshoff, Heinzelmann, and Wäfler 2009, pp. 68–87, esp. 75–81.

  22 Licht 1968, pp. 79–84; Broucke 2009, p. 28.

  23 Davies, Hemsoll, and Wilson Jones 1987; Wilson Jones 2000, pp. 200–202.

  24 Dressel 1891; Bloch 1947; Lise Hetland, “Dating the Pantheon,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 20, 2007, pp. 95–112, and Chapter Three in the present volume.

  25 Romans measured bricks by the pes, or foot (about 29.5 cm). Bipedales were approximately 59 cm x 59 cm x 6 or 7 cm.

  26 Wilson Jones 2000, pp. 184 and 211.

  27 Today the distinction between the pavonazetto and giallo antico is not obvious, since the ivory hue of the former has been discolored due to the use of acidic cleaning agents.

  28 Wolf-Dieter Heilmeyer, “Korinthische Normalkapitelle: Studien zur Geschichte der römischen Architekturdekoration,” Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Römische Abteilung. Supplement 16, 1970, pp. 158–161.

  29 The Vatican Museums and Sir John Soane’s Museum both have capitals from the attic pilasters, for which see A. Uncini, “Due capitelli dal Pantheon nella collezione del Museo Gregoriano Profano ex-Lateranense,” Bollettino dei monumenti musei e galerie pontificie 8, 1988, pp. 55–63.

  30 Alberto Terenzio, “La Restauration du Panthéon de Rome,” Museion 20, 1932, pp. 52–57; G. De Angelis d’Ossat, “Le rocce adoperate nella cupola del Pantheon,” Atti della Pontificia Accademia della Scienze, Nuovi Lincei 83, 1930, pp. 211–215; William L. MacDonald, The Architecture of the Roman Empire, vol. 1: An Introductory Study, London 1965 (2nd ed. rev. New Haven 1982), Chap. 5; Licht 1968, pp. 94–100; 133–142; Lynne Lancaster, “Materials and Construction of the Pantheon in Relation to the Developments in Vaulting in Antiquity,” in Gerd Grasshoff, Michael Heinzelmann, and Markus Wäfler 2009, pp. 117–125.

  31 Mark Wilson Jones, “Principles of Design in Roman Architecture: The Setting Out of Centralised Buildings,” Papers of the British School at Rome 57, 1989, pp. 106–151; Wilson Jones 2000, Chapter 4 and pp. 184–186, and 208. See also Gerd Sperling, Das Pantheon in Rom, Neuried 1999; Giangiacomo Martines “Argomenti di geometria antica a proposito della cupola del Pantheon,” Quaderni dell’Istituto di Storia dell’Architettura 13, 1989, pp. 3–10, and Chapter Four in the present volume.

  32 Lothar Haselberger, “Architectural Likenesses: Models and Plans of Architecture in Classical Antiquity,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 10, 1997, pp. 77–94; Wilson Jones 2000, Chapter 3, including Fig. 3.3 for the Temple of Castor and Pollux plan.

  33 S.H.A., Hadrian 19.2–13; Procopius 4.6.12–13; see MacDonald 1965, 2nd ed. rev., 1982, pp. 130–131 for English translations. On the career of Apollodorus see MacDonald 1965, pp. 129–134; Wilson Jones 2000, pp. 21–24; Adriano La Regina, ed., L’arte dell’assedio di Apollodoro di Damasco, Rome 1999; F. Festa Farina, G. Calcani, C. Meucci, and M. Conforto, eds., Tra Damasco e Roma: l’architettura di Apollodoro nella cultura classica, Rome 2001.

  34 Heilmeyer 1970, pp. 158–161; Wolf-Dieter Heilmeyer, “Apollodorus von Damaskus – der Architekt des Pantheon,” Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Römische Abteilung 90, 1975, pp. 316–347.

  35 Dio Cassius, 69.4. See also Wilson Jones 2000, pp. 23–24; Wilson Jones, “Who Built the Pantheon? Agrippa, Apollodorus, Hadrian and Trajan,” in Hadrian: Art, Politics and Economy, ed. Thorsten Opper, British Museum Research Publications 175, London 2013, pp. 31–49.

  36 Sible De Blaauw, “Das Pantheon als christlicher Tempel,” in Bild und Formensprache der spätantiken Kunst. Hugo Brandenburg zum 65 Geburtstag, Boreas 17, Münster, 1994, pp. 13–26; and more generally, Tod A. Marder, “Das Pantheon,” in Rom: Meisterwerke der Baukunst von der Antike bis heute, Festgabe für Elisabeth Kieven, ed. Christina Strunck, Imhof, 2007, pp. 44–48; and Marder, “The Pantheon After Antiquity,” in Gerd Grasshoff, Michael Heinzelmann, and Markus Wäfler, eds., The Pantheon in Rome: Contributions to the Conference in Bern, November 9–12, 2006, Bern, 2009, pp. 145–153.

  37 Richard Krautheimer, Rome: Profile of a City, 312–1308, Princeton, 1980, p. 90.

  38 Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis anglorum ii, 4; cf. ed. Charles Plummer, Venerabilis Baedae Historiam ecclesiasticam gentis Anglorum, vol. 1, Oxford 1896, p. 88.

  39 John Capgrave, Ye solace of pilgrimes: una guida de Roma per i pellegrini del Quattrocento, trans. Daniela Giosuè, Rome, 1995.

  40 Michael Viktor Schwarz, “Eine frühmittelalterliche Umgestaltung der Pantheon-Vorhalle,” Römisches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana 26, 1990, pp. 1–29.

  41 Antonio Muñoz, “La decorazione medioevale del Pantheon,” Nuovo bullettino di archeologia cristiana 18, 1912, pp. 25–35; Giovanni Eroli, Raccolta generale delle iscrizioni pagane e cristiane esistite ed esistenti nel Pantheon di Roma, Narni, 1895, pp. 237 ff. and 351 ff.

  42 Published documention for these campaigns can be found in Eroli 1895 and Muñoz 1912, as well as in the research of Eugène Müntz (1876, 1884), Giovanni Adinolfi (1881), Giuseppe Cugnoni (1885), Francesco Cerasoli (1909), and Emmanuel Rodocanacchi (1914), among others. For a handy summary of their work, see David Karmon, The Ruin of the Eternal City: Antiquity and Preservation in Renaissance Rome, Oxford, 2011, Chapter 5.

  43 Tilmann Buddensieg, “Raffaels Grab,” in Munuscula Discipulorum. Kunsthistorische Studien Hans Kauffmann zum 70. Geburtstag 1966, ed. Tilmann Buddenseig and Matthias Winner, Berlin 1968, pp. 45–46, and more generally pp. 45–70; Karmon 2011, pp. 159–162.

  44 Tilmann Buddensieg, “Criticism and Praise of the Pantheon in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance,” in Classical Influences on European Culture A.D. 500–1500: Proceedings of an International Conference Held at Kings College, Cambridge, April 1969, ed. R. R. Bolgar, Cambridge 1971, pp. 259–267; Buddensieg, “Criticism of Ancient Architecture in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” in Classical Influences on European Culture AD 500–1500, ed. R. R. Bolgar, Cambridge, 1976, pp. 335–348; Tod A. Marder, “Bernini and Alexander VII: Criticism and Praise of the Pantheon in the Seventeenth Century,” Art Bulletin, 71, no. 4, 1989, pp. 628–645; Wilson Jones 2000, pp. 187–191.

  45 Sebastiano Serlio, Tutte l’opere d’architettura (I sette libri dell’architettura), Venice 1584, Book III, fol. 52 and 54 verso. The first edition of Serlio’s third book appeared in 1540.

  46 Andrea Palladio, I quattro libri dell’architettura, Venice 1570, Book IV, Chapter XX.

  47 Giorgio Vasari, Le vite de’ più eccelenti pittori sculptori ed architetti, ed. G. Milanesi, Florence, 1906, vol. 4, pp. 511–512.

  48 Marder 1989.

  49 Wilson Jones, 2000, pp. 191–196.

  50 Louise Rice, “Bernini and the Panth
eon Bronze,” Sankt Peter in Rom 1506–2006. Beiträge der internationalen Tagung vom 22–25 Februar 2006 in Bonn, ed. Georg Satzinger and Sebastian Schütze, Munich, 2008, pp. 337–352; Rice, “Urbano VIII e il dilemma del portico del Pantheon,” Bollettino d’arte, 143, 2008, pp. 93–110; Rice, “Pope Urban VIII and the Pantheon Portico,” in Grasshoff, Heinzelmann, and Wäfler 2009, pp. 155–156. See now, Carolyn Y. Yerkes, “Drawings of the Pantheon in the Metropolitan Museum’s Goldschmidt Scrapbook,” Metropolitan Museum Journal 48, 2013, pp. 87–120.

  51 Heinrich Thelen, Francesco Borromini: Die Handzeichnungen, Graz, 1967, vol. 1, pp. 32–37; Howard Hibbard, Carlo Maderno and Roman Architecture 1580–1630, London 1971, pp. 230–231.

  52 Tod A. Marder, “Alexander VII, Bernini and the Urban Setting of the Pantheon in Seventeenth Century,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 50,1991, pp. 273–291, and Chapter Ten in this volume.

  53 Marder 1989.

  54 Tod A. Marder, “Specchi’s High Altar for the Pantheon and the Statues by Cametti and Moderati,” Burlington Magazine 122, 1980, pp. 30–40. Along with other recommendations for the commission, Specchi had just published his book of engravings of Disegni di vari altari e cappelle nelle chiese di Roma in 1713.

  55 Marder 1980.

  56 Susanna Pasquali, “From the Pantheon of Artists to the Pantheon of Illustrious Men: Raphael’s Tomb and Its Legacy,” in Wrigley and Craske 2004, pp. 35–56.

  57 Pasquali 2004 pp. 36–38; Giuseppe Bonacorso and Tommaso Manfredi, in I Virtuosi al Pantheon 1700–1758, Rome 1998, give the statutes of the confraternity (pp. 8–11) and a full account of its activities of the period.

  58 See Pasquali 2004 for this paragraph. Also see Eveline G. Bouwers, “A Papal Pantheon? Canova’s ‘Illustrious Italians’ in Rome,” in Public Pantheons in Revolutionary Europe: Comparing Cultures of Remembrance, c. 1790–1840, ed. Eveline G. Bouwers, New York 2012, pp. 132–160.

  59 Pasquali 2004, p. 48, quotes Stendhal writing in 1817: “Sooner or later it will no longer be known as a church, which in times past protected it against the spirit of Christianity. It would be a sublime museum.”

  60 See the 1836 painting of the event by Francesco Diofebei in the Thorwaldsen Museum, Copenhagen.

  61 Susanna Pasquali, Il Pantheon: architettura e antiquaria nel Settecento a Roma, Modena 1996.

  62 All citations are from Pasquali 1996a, and included in Tod A. Marder, “Symmetry and Eurythmy at the Pantheon: The Fate of Bernini’s Perceptions from the Seventeenth Century to the Present Day,” in Antiquity and Its Interpreters, ed. Alina Payne, Ann Kuttner, and Rebekah Smick, New York 2000, pp. 217–226.

  63 Marder 1989; Pasquali 1996a; Marder 2000.

  64 In connection with that work, the ministers of Clement XI once again rebuilt the booths and stands of the street merchants within restricted boundaries, for which see Tod A. Marder, “Piazza della Rotonda e la Fontana del Pantheon: un rinnovamento urbanistico di Clemente XI,” Arte illustrata 7, 1974, pp. 310–320.

  65 Attilio LaPadula, Roma e la regione nell’epoca napoleonica, Rome 1969, pp. 121–122.

  66 LaPadula 1969, docs. 260–261 and Plates XLII, XLIV, and XLV.

  67 Camille De Tournon, Etudes statistiques sur Rome et la partie occidentale des états romains, 2nd ed., Paris 1855, pp. 277 and 306, and Plate 30. Carlo Fea, Dei diritti del principato sugli antichi edifizj publici sacri e profani in occasione del Panteon di Marco Agrippa: memoria, Rome 1806; and Fea, L’integrita’ del Panteon di M. Agrippa ora S. Maria ad martyres rivendicata al principato, Rome 1807, provide additional documentation.

  68 Emma Marconcini in Luisa Cardilli, ed., La Fontana del Pantheon, Rome 1993, pp. 31–45; Alberto M. Racheli, Restauri a Roma 1870–1990. Architettura e città, Venice 1995, pp. 354–357.

  69 Ceen 2009, pp. 127–138. Directed by Alessandro Viviani, the Master Plan (Piano Regolatore) of 1873 sought to render the “intricate labyrinth of narrow streets” more “permeable.” The 1883 Piano Regolatore, which again included the participation of Viviani, anticipated widened streets between the Maddalena and the Pantheon, but no demolition of the intervening city block. Under the direction of Edmondo Sanjust di Teulada the 1909 Piano Regolatore sought to minimize the necessity of crossing the historic center, much of which was to remain intact. In the 1931 Master Plan for Mussolini, drawn by a committee that included Marcello Piacentini, Gustavo Giovannoni, and Antonio Muñoz, the intervening city block was again to be demolished.

  70 Alberto M. Racheli, Restauro a Roma 1870–2000, Milan, 2000, pp. 354–357.

  71 Published as Luca Beltrami, Il Pantheon; la struttura organica della cupola e del sottostante tamburo, le fondazioni della rotonda, dell’ avancorpo, e del portico, avanzi degli edifici anteriori alle costruzioni adrianee. Relazione delle indagini eseguite dal R. Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione negli anni 1892–93, coi rilievi e disegni dell’ architetto Pier Olinto Armanini, Milan 1898.

  72 Our thanks to Carla Trovini for clarifying the career of Comparini.

  73 Racheli 2000, p. 356; Gian Paolo Consoli, “Dal primato della città al primato della strada: il ruolo del piano di Armando Brasini per Roma nello sviluppo della città fascista,” L’architettura nelle città italiane del XX secolo. Dagli anni Venti agli anni Ottanta, ed. Vittorio Franchetti Pardo, Milan 2003, pp. 203–11. Our thanks to Carla Trovini for this reference.

  74 Racheli 2000, p. 356.

  75 Racheli 2000, p. 357.

  76 Belardi 2006, pp. 181–194.

  Two Agrippa’s Pantheon and Its Origin

  Eugenio La Rocca

  The Campus Martius, the Pantheon, and Dio Cassius’s Account

  The vast flat area outside the Servian Wall circumscribed by the Campidoglio, the Tiber, and the slopes of the Quirinal and Pincian hills was traditionally reserved for military exercises associated with the war god Mars, from whom the name Campus Martius was derived. Initially on the fringes of the city, the area was progressively monumentalized in the course of the Republican and Augustan periods, when prominent buildings devoted to public and political functions were laid out (Fig. 2.1). Many of these were commissioned by Augustus’s chief ally and son-in-law, Marcus Agrippa, whose military successes had generated enormous wealth. Bounded by his own public bath complex to the south and an artificial pool called the stagnum to the west, and by the Saepta Iulia (a building begun by Julius Caesar housing a voting precinct, dedicated in 26 BC), the Pantheon was constructed by Agrippa and dedicated in 27 or 25 BC.1Little is known about Agrippa’s Pantheon. It apparently suffered damage in AD 80, during a fire that devastated a sector of the Campus Martius, from the Baths of Agrippa all the way to the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline. Domitian carried out reconstruction work of an unknown extent,2 but lightning struck during the reign of Trajan, giving rise to the reconstruction finished by Hadrian, and for that reason the Pantheon that survives to our day is referred to here as the Hadrianic building (but see the chapter by Lise Hetland).3 An understanding of that building obviously begins with its Agrippan predecessor.

  2.1. Plan showing the Campus Martius in the Augustan period. (Coarelli 1997, modified by the author)

  What we know of Agrippa’s monument is deduced almost exclusively from the writings of Dio Cassius, a second-century AD historian and political leader. Born in Nicaea in Bithynia, Dio had a relatively bright career under the Severan dynasty, becoming consul twice. His accounts of the much earlier Augustan period were based on firsthand information from his predecessor Livy, from the historical accounts (breviaria) of Augustus himself, and from the autobiographies of both Agrippa and Augustus’s confidante Gaius Maecenas. In addition, Dio would have had access to the senatorial archives because of his rank. The following passage is the main evidence on which to base an interpretation of the original Augustan Pantheon, a building Dio knew only in its Hadrianic redaction:

  [I]n addition [Agrippa] concluded the construction of the building called the Pantheon, given this name probably because among the statues that
adorn it are included images of many gods, among which are also Mars and Venus, even though in my opinion the reason can be ascribed to the domed vault, which represents the heavens. Agrippa wanted then to place there also [a statue of] Augustus and to bestow upon him the honour of having the work named after him; but since the prince did not accept either of these two honours, he had placed in the temple a statue of [Julius] Caesar pater, while in the porch he put statues of Augustus and himself.

  (Dio Cassius, LIII, 27)

  Dio seems to have chosen his terms in Greek cautiously, avoiding a precise definition of Augustus’s statue and distinguishing the divinities inside the building from those in the porch. Although an exhaustive study of the changing meanings of his terminology is lacking,4 he appears to have differentiated between cult statues (agalmata and theon eikones) and statues like those for Augustus and Agrippa (andriantes), which were not intended as objects of worship.5 In describing these statues, Dio accords them religious but not divine status; more significant than merely honorary, these statues bore a close affinity with those of the interior.