a beautiful edifice at Rome, anciently a temple, dedicated to all the gods; but now converted into a church, and dedicated to the Virgin and all the martyrs.
This edifice is generally thought to have been built by Agrippa son-in-law to Augustus, because it has the following inscription on the frieze of the portico.
M. AGRIPPA L. F. COS. TERTIUM FECIT.
Several antiquarians and artists, however, have supposed that the pantheon existed in the times of the commonwealth; and that it was only embellished by Agrippa, who added the portico. Be this as it will, however, the pantheon, when perfected by Agrippa, was an exceedingly magnificent building; the form of whose body is round or cylindrical, and its roof or dome is spherical: it is 144 feet diameter within; and the height of it, from the pavement to the grand aperture on its top, through which it receives the light, is just as much. It is of the Corinthian order. The inner circumference is divided into seven grand niches, wrought in the thickness of the wall: fix of which are flat at the top; but the seventh, opposite to the entrance, is arched. Before each niche are two columns of antique yellow marble fluted, and of one entire block, making in all 14, the finest in Rome. The whole wall of the temple, as high as the grand cornice inclusive, is cased with divers sorts of precious marble in compartments. The frieze is entirely of porphyry. Above the grand cornice arises an attic, in which were wrought, at equal distances, 14 oblong square niches: between each niche were four marble pilasters, and between the pilasters marble tables of various kinds. This attic had a complete entablature; but the cornice projected less than that of the grand order below. Immediately from the cornice springs the spherical roof, divided by bands, which cross each other like the meridians and parallels of an artificial terrestrial globe. The spaces between the bands decrease in size as they approach the top of the roof; to which, however, they do not reach, there being a considerable plain space between them and the great opening. That so bold a roof might be as light as possible, the architect formed the substance of the spaces between the bands of nothing but lime and pumice-stones. The walls below were decorated with lead and brafs, and works of carved silver over them; and the roof was covered on the outside with plates of gilded bronze. There was an ascent from the springing of the roof to the very summit by a flight of seven stairs. And if certain authors may be credited, these stairs were ornamented with pedestalian statues ranged as an amphitheatre. This notion was founded on a passage of Pliny, who says, "That Diogenes the sculptor decorated the pantheon of Agrippa with elegant statues; yet that it was difficult to judge of their merit, upon account of their elevated situation." The portico is composed of 16 columns of granite, four feet in diameter, eight of which stand in front, with an equal intercolumniation all along, contrary to the rule of Vitruvius, who is for having the space answering to the door of a temple, wider than the rest. Of these columns is a pediment, whose tympanum, or flat, was ornamented with bas-reliefs in brafs; the cross beams which formed the ceiling of the portico were covered with the same metal, and so were the doors. The ascent up to the portico was by eight or nine steps.
Such was the pantheon, the richness of which induced Pliny to rank it among the wonders of the world.
The eruption of Vesuvius, in the reign of Tiberius, damaged the Pantheon very considerably: it was repaired by Domitian; which occasioned some writers to mention that prince as the founder of the building. The emperor Adrian also did something to it. But it appears, that the pantheon is more indebted to Septimius Severus, than to any one since its erection. The most, perhaps, that any of his predecessors had done, was the adding some ornament to it: Septimius bestowed essential reparations upon it. The following inscription appears upon the architrave:
IMP. CAES. SEPTIMIVS. SEVERVS. PIVS. PERTINAX. ARABICVS. PARTHICVS. PONTIF. MAX. TRIB. POT. XI. COS. III. P. F. ET. IMP. CAES. MARCVS. AVRELIUS. ANTONINVS. PIUS. FELIX. AVG. TRIB. POT. V. COS. PROCOS. PANTHEVM. VETVSSTATE. OBRVPTVM. CVM. OMNI. CVLTV. RESTITUITERVNT.
It is really a matter 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 times of the commonwealth.
The temple subsisted in all its grandeur till the incursion of Alaric in the time of Honorius. Zozimus 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 tem- ples 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, Genseric 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 ineffa- mable 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 for 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 transport- ed to Syracuse, where they soon after fell into the hands of the Saracens.
About fifty years before this, Pope Boniface IV. had obtained the pantheon of the emperor Phocas, to make a church of it. The artists of these days were totally ignorant of the excellence of the Greek and Roman ar- chitecture, and spoiled every thing they laid their hands upon. To this period certain alterations are to be re- ferred, 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- plat of the whole city. The pantheon happening to stand at the entrance of the Campus Martius, was pre- sently surrounded with housetops, which spoiled the fine prospect of it; and it was yet more deplorably disgra- ced by some of them which stood close to its walls. Pedlars sheds were built even within its portico, and the intercolumniations were bricked up, to the irrepa- rable damage of the matchless pillars, of which some left part of their capitals, some of their bases, and others were chiseled out fix or seven inches deep, and as many feet high, to let in pofts. Which excavations are to this day half filled up with brick and mor- tar; 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 Eu- gene IV. whose zeal for the decency of a consecra- ted place, prevailed upon him to have all the houses cleared away that encumbered the pantheon, and so the miserable barracks in the portico were knocked down.
From the time Constantius carried off the brafs 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 XI. covered it with lead, which Nicho- las V. renewed in a better style.
It does not appear that, from this time to Urban Pantheon, VIII. any pope did any thing remarkable to the pan- theon.
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 Vagu, Jaco- mo Udino, Hannibal Carracci, Flamingo Vacca, and the celebrated Archangelo Corelli, did the fame. All the ornaments within, that have any claim to be called good, are of the later times; the paintings merit esteem; and the statues, though not masterpieces, 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 prætifier 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 bel- fries of a wretched taste to be erected on the ancient front work, and he divested the portico of all the re- mains 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 confessional 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 fa- mily of Barberini, prefented also as much of this metal to his nephew, as was sufficient for the decoration of his new palace; on which occasion this remarkable paquinade was stuck up:
Quod non fecerunt Barbari fecere Barberini.
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 con- structing 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, or Elba, 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 cauled all the old housetops before the portico to be pulled down, and the foil 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. Cle- ment 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 holiness's liberality was the embellishment of the grand altar. One gave purple curtains, another beflowed 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 Greffl, 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.
There was besides at Rome another pantheon, dedicated to Minerva as the goddess of medicine. It was in the form of a decagon, and the distance from one angle to another measured about 22 feet and a half. Between the angles there were nine round chapels, each of which was designed for a deity; and over the gate there was a statue of Minerva. The pantheon of Athens was in many respects little inferior to the Roman one built by Agrippa. The Greek Christians also converted it into a church, dedicated it to the Virgin, under the name of Panegia; and the Turks changed it into a mosque. The pantheon of Nîmes was a temple in that city, wherein were 12 niches for statues, supposed to have been destined for the 12 great gods. In the Escorial is a most magnificent chapel, called pantheon, 35 feet in diameter, and 38 feet high from the pavement, which is composed of marble and jasper inlaid. The whole inside of the chapel is of black marble, except the lutheran, and some ornaments of jasper and red marble. In this chapel are deposited the bodies of the kings and queens; there are only places for 26, and eight of them are already filled.