PANTHEON, 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. (See Rome.)

This edifice is generally thought to have been built by Agrippa, son-in-law to Augustus, from an inscription on the frieze of the portico Several antiquaries 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 But be this as it may, the Pantheon, when perfected by Agrippa, was an exceedingly magnificent building; the form of the body being round or cylindrical, and its roof or dome spherical. Within, it is 144 feet in diameter; and the height from the pavement to the grand aperture on the top, through which it re ceives 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, six 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 fourteen, the finest in Rome. The whole wall of the temple, as high as the grand cornice inclusive, is cased with different sorts of precious marble in compartments; and the frieze is entirely of porphyry. Above the grand cornice arises an attic, in which were wrought, at equal distances, fourteen oblong square niches; between each niche there 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 brass, and works of carved silver; 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 certaina uthors may be credited, these stairs were ornamented with pedestrian 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 porticois composed of sixteen 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. On these columns there is a pediment, the tympanum of which was ornamented with bas-reliefs in brass; and the cross beams which formed the ceiling of the porticowere covered with the same metal, as were also the doors. The ascent up to the portico was by eight or nine steps.

In the reign of Tiberius, the Pantheon was considerably damaged; but it was repaired by Domitian, from which circumstance some writers consider him as the founder of the building. The Emperor Hadrian also did something to the edifice. But the Pantheon was more indebted to Septimius Severus, than to any one besides. The most, perhaps, that any of his predecessors had done, was adding some ornament to it; Septimius bestowed upon it essential reparations.

This 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 three thousand pounds weight of gold and five thousand pounds weight of silver, upon condition that he should depart from their walls; and having found it impossible to raise those sums either out of the public treasury or by private contribution, 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 in riches. Alaric carried off nothing from the Romans besides their precious metals. But, thirty-nine years thereafter, Genseric king of the Vandals took away part of the marbles; and whether from greed of plunder, or from a relish for the productions of art, he loaded [7:16:792] one of his ships with statues. It cannot be questioned that on this occasion the Pantheon was stripped of more of its ornaments, and that the inestimable works of Diogenes became the prey of this barbarian.

Before these predatory 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 Alarie. It continued so rich till about the year 655, as to excite the avarice of Constantius II., who came from Constantinople to pillage the Pantheon, and executed his purpose so far as to strip it both of its interior and exterior coverings of bronze, which he transported to Syracuse, where they soon afterwards fell into the hands of the Saracens.

About fifty years before this, Boniface IV. had obtained the Pantheon of the Emperor Phocas, in order to convert it[into a church. The artists of those days were totally ignorant of the excellence of the Greek and Roman architecture, and spoiled every thing they laid their hands upon. To this period are to be referred certain alterations, of which we shall immediately have occasion to speak.

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 Tiber, became the ground-plat 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; and it was still more deplorably disgraced by some of them which stood close to its walls.

From the time when Constantius carried off the brass plating of the exterior 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 till that of Urban VIII. any thing remarkable was done for the Pantheon.

Raffaelle, who had no equal as a painter, and who was also an architect, left a considerable sum by his will for the reparation of the Pantheon, where his tomb is placed; and Perino de la Vagua, Jacomo Udino, Annibale Caracci, Flamingo Vacca, and the celebrated Corelli, did the same. All the ornaments within which have any claim to be called good, are of later times. The paintings merit esteem; and the statues, although not masterpieces, do honour to sculpture, which alone is a proof that they are posterior to the fifteenth century.

But, with all the respect due to a pontiff who was otherwise a protector and friend of the arts, it were much to be wished that Urban VIII. had never known that the Pantheon existed. The inscriptions cut at the side of the door inform us that he repaired it; yet, whilst he built up with one hand, he pulled down with the other. He caused two belfries constructed in a wretched taste to be erected on the ancient front-work, and he divested the porticoof all the remains of its ancient grandeur, namely, the brazen covering of the cross beams, which amounted to such a prodigious quantity, that not only the vast canopy of the confessional of St Peter’s was cast out of it, but likewise a great number of cannon for the castle of St Angelo.

Alexander VII. did what Urban VIII. had neglected to do. Whilst Bernini was constructing the colonnade of St Peter, this pontiff ordered search to be made for pillars to match those of the porticoof the Pantheon; and some were found not far from the French church of St Louis, which were of the very same model. They were granite of the isle of Ilva or Elba, and those of the porticowere Egyptian granite; the colour, however, was the same, so that the effect was equal. Nor did the pontiff’s zeal stop here. He caused all the old houses before the porticoto be pulled down, and the soil and rubbish which covered the steps, and even the bases of some of the pillars, to be cleared away. He began covering the roof with marble, and raised a lantern ;over the aperture, to keep out rain; but death removed him before his project was completed. Clement IX. his successor, enclosed the porticowithin iron rails. Several Jater popes have added to its decorations, which were all in the taste of the times when they were executed; and the body of the edifice and its architecture gained nothing by them. The main object of the liberality of the pontiffs was the embellishment of the grand altar. One sent purple curtains, another bestowed silver tabernacles, and others gave 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 replaced the skeletons and squat figures which had disgraced the altars for the space of eight centuries. The paintings of Perugino and others 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 amongst the old ruins were likewise employed to much advantage.