The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1875-10-06
THE PANTHEON.
Its Faultless Beanty-The Changes Which Have
Bepn Made.

Its Faultless Beaaty-Tke Changes Which Have
Been Made.
Curtis Guild thus describes the Pan
theon: The impression OF It's faultless
beauty came over me as Istood in the
center OF the perfect circle OF this great
temple to all the gods, arotunda 142 feet
in diameter and 143 teet high. There are
no windows, but a. perfectly circular
in diameter admits d light that lights the
whole, and through which the blue Ital-
ian sky aud fleecy clouds are seen.
Around on all sides are now Christian
affairs, and the great inches are vacant
that once held marble figures of heather
deities; the magnificent bronze plates
that sheathed the most perfect dome in
the world are stripped away, nay, even
some OF the stone and marble work is
whitewashed or otherwise disfgured,
and yet you can not stand upon the floor
of this magnificent old temple 20 the
gods, buitt twehty-seven years before
of admiration at its perfect beauty of
proportion.
WHAT must it have been in its prime,
with it's magnificent front, not as now
slfnken, as modern Rome or as success
i've modern Romes, have heaped' their
soil up over The old city till now you
step down into the Pantheonl Eighteen
centuries ago it's magnificent portico,
with It's grant front of over 109feet, sup
ported by sixtte en- Corintnian pillars
thirty six feet high which still renlain),
liwas above the level of the street, and
liwas approached by a. fight Of six marble
lIsteps. and thevestibaie, aibeautiful vista
of white marble pilasters;i the pedi-
linen. above was ornamented with gIori-
ous bas' re1iefs' (you may see the
lholes in which the bolts holding them
were placed, to this day J. and the roof
was sheathed with bronze, which Pope
Urban VIII not orty' was yandai oush
| 70 strip and melG down for bronze COL
unrns and cannon, but pe1petuaael the
act that there should be no IN. axe as to
| aho the despoiIer was, byrecording itin
| Ia Latin inscription Overcome OF The door
! ways. Then he increased theoutrag by
adding two ugly bell towers TO the dGne
calied); and another Pope. Benedict
XIV, Who was Pope ffom LAO TO 1858.
tore away beautiful marbles from the
upper part ofiit to ad6rii buildings he
was erecting. 4sao g.
But despite all this the grand and per-
| feet beauty Of the temple could not be
destroyed, and we can Imagine, stand
| ing ihereiupon what was once the elegant
pavement OF porphyryiand marble, that
the pagan naataTreared its height beneath
the tnen. perfect vault oil bronze, the
smoke OF ascending, sacrifice rose
through the great opening direct to the
uostriis OF the my Ihical Joye himself,
and in these now empty nicnes, fifty feet
above the pasemeait, stood looking do wii
upon priest and people the colossal
sculptured figures OF Jupiter, warlike
Mars and majestic Minerva, Apollo with
bent bow or with Tyre in hahu, and Vul-
can pausing o'er his thunderbolts.
1he sides Of the vast circle glittered
with polished marbles and elegant cary
ling; tie attic or root cleaned with scuip-
tured silver and'bronze, and was 4uphe. d
by caryatides of Syraclrsan bronze;
statues -ot Rome's empefors and sena,
tors peopleI inches at the entrance or
in the porticos, and Marcus Agrippa's
temple TO the gods was.one OF the glorios
OF old Rome. The .ancient br0nze.doors
remain, and the Corinthian pillars ol
red grauite. with marble capitals, rotigh-
eneu and blackened with the Dreath OF IL
centuries, will continue to command at.
tention, extract admiration and remind
1 the student Of the architecture OF classi
cal times; but all around the interior IL