IMP. CAES. SEPTIMIUS. SEVERVS.
PVS PERTINAX.
ARABICVS. PARTHICVS. PONTIF.
MAX. TRIB. POT.
XI. COS. III. P. P. ET. IMP. CAES.
MARCVS.
AVRELIVS. ANTONINVS. PVS.
FELIX. AVG. TRIB.
POT. V. COS. PROCOS. PANTHEVM.
VETVSTATE.
OBSVPTVM. CVM. OMNI. CVLTV.
RESTITVVERVNT.
It is really a manner of astonishment, that a structure, which, granting it to have been built by Agrippa, was not more than 200 years old, should have fallen into decay through age. This single consideration seems sufficient to confirm the opinion of those who believe it to have stood in the time of the commonwealth.
The temple subsisted in all its grandeur, till the incursion of Alaric in the time of Honorius. Zozymus relates, that the Romans having engaged to furnish this barbarian prince with 3000 pounds weight of gold, and 5000 pounds weight of silver, upon condition that he should depart from their walls; and it proving impossible to raise those sums either out of the public treasury or private purses, they were obliged to strip the temples of their statues and ornaments of gold and silver. It is probable that the pantheon supplied a good part, as that of Jupiter Capitolinus was the only one in Rome that could vie with it for riches.
Alaric carried off nothing from the Romans besides their precious metals. Thirty-nine years after this, Genferic king of the Vandals took away part of their marbles; and whether from a greediness of plunder, or from a relish of the productions of art, loaded one of his ships with statues. It cannot be questioned, but that on this occasion the pantheon was forced to part with more of its ornaments, and that the ineffable works of Diogenes became the prey of this Barbarian.
Before these unwelcome visits of the Goths and Vandals, the Christian emperors had issued edicts for demolishing the pagan temples. But the Romans, whatever were their motives, spared the pantheon, which is known to have suffered no damage from the zeal of the pontiffs, or the indignation of the saints, before the first siege of Rome by Alaric. It remained so rich till about the year 655, as to excite the avarice of Constantine II. who came from Constantinople to pillage the pantheon, and executed his purpose so far as to strip it both of its inside and outside brazen coverings, which he transported to Syracuse, where they soon after fell into the hands of the Saracens.
About 50 years before this, pope Boniface IV. had
obtained the pantheon of the emperor Phocas, to make a church of it. The artists of those days were totally ignorant of the excellence of the Greek and Roman architecture, and spoiled everything they laid their hands upon. To this period, certain alterations are to be referred, of which we shall speak by and by.
After the devastations of the barbarians, Rome was contracted within a narrow compass: the seven hills were abandoned; and the Campus Martius, being an even plain, and near the Tyber, became the ground-plot of the whole city. The pantheon, happening to stand at the entrance of the Campus Martius, was presently surrounded with houses, which spoiled the fine prospect of it; and it was yet more deplorably disgraced by some of them which stood close to its walls. Pedlars shades were built even within its portico, and the intercolumniations were bricked up, to the irreparable damage of the matchless pillars, of which some lost part of their capitals, some of their bases, and others were chiselled out six or seven inches deep, and as many feet high, to let in polls. Which excavations are to this day half filled up with brick and mortar; a sad monument of the licentiousness of the vulgar, and of the stupid avarice of those who sold them the privilege to ruin the noblest piece of art in the world!
This disorder continued till the pontificate of Eugene IV. whose zeal for the decency of a consecrated place, prevailed upon him to have all the houses cleared away that incumbered the pantheon, and so the miserable barracks in the portico were knocked down.
From the time Constantius carried off the brass plating of the external roof, that part was exposed to the injuries of the weather, or at best was but slightly tiled in, till Benedict II. covered it with lead, which Nicholas V. renewed in a better style.
It does not appear that from this time to Urban VIII. any pope did any thing remarkable to the pantheon.
Raphael Urban, who had no equal as a painter, and who as an architect had no superior, left a considerable sum by his will for the reparation of the pantheon, where his tomb is placed. Perino de la Vagus, Jacomo Udino, Annibale Carracci, Flamingo Vacca, and the celebrated Archangelo Corelli, did the same. All the ornaments within, that have any claim to be called good, are of the latter times; the paintings merit esteem; and the statues, though not master-pieces, do honour to sculpture, which alone is a proof that they are posterior to the 15th century.
But, with all the respect due to a pontiff, who was otherwise a protector, and even a practitioner of the arts, it were much to be wished that Urban VIII. had not known that the pantheon existed. The inscriptions cut at the side of the door inform us, that he repaired it; yet, at the same time that he built up with one hand, he pulled down with the other. He caused two bell-fries of a wretched taste to be erected on the ancient front work, and he divested the portico of all the remains of its ancient grandeur, viz. the brazen cover-ture of the cross beams, which amounted to such a prodigious quantity, that not only the vast baldachin, or canopy, of the confession in St Peter's, was cast out of it, but likewise a great number of cannon for the castle of St Angelo. This pope, who was of the family of Barbarini, presented also as much of this metal to his nephew, as was sufficient for the decoration of
Pantheon of his new palace; on which occasion this remarkable pasquinade was stuck up,
Pantomime Quod non fecerunt Barbari fecere Barbari.
If ever gingle added force to wit, it was certainly in this instance.
It is surprising, that whilst all these operations were carrying on in the portico, he never once thought of repairing the damages which time had wrought in it! Of the 16 pillars which supported this magnificent pile, there were no more than 13 left; the three next the temple of Minerva had disappeared; with these the entablature and an angle of the front had tumbled down. There were not wanting in Rome fragments enough of antique columns that might have been put together and set up, to have prevented the downfall of a pile which deserved to stand as long as the world endured.
Alexander VII. did what Urban VIII. had neglected to do. At the same time that Bernini was constructing the colonnade of St Peter, this pontiff ordered search to be made for pillars to match those of the portico of the pantheon; and some were found not far from the French church of St Lewis, of the very same model. They were granite of the isle of Ilva, and those of the portico were Egyptian granite; the colour, however, was the same, so that the effect was equal. The pope's zeal did not stop here; he caused all the old houses before the portico to be pulled down, and the soil and rubbish to be cleared away, which covered the steps, and even the bases of some of the pillars. He began covering the roof with marble, and raised a lantern over the aperture, to keep out rain; but death took him off before his project was completed. Clement IX. his successor, inclosed the portico within iron rails. Several later popes have added to its decorations, which were all in the taste of the times they were done in, and the body of the edifice and its architecture gained nothing from them. The main object of their holinesses liberality was the embellishment of the grand altar. One gave purple curtains, another bestowed silver tabernacles; others again vases, and superb dresses, suited to the solemn ceremonies of religion. All these might be called rich; but they had in no sense a tendency to retrieve the ancient majesty or original splendour of the temple. The true gusto of the ornaments was a little imitated at the revival of the arts. Good statues took place of the skeletons and squat figures that ridiculously disgraced the altars for the space of eight centuries. The paintings of Perugino, Cozza, and Gressi, covered the dull mosaics with which the Greeks of Constantinople had loaded the walls of most of the churches in Rome. The porphyry and the green and yellow antique, found among the old ruins, were employed to much advantage.