SOME
DATA RE THE PANTHEON IN ROME - PAGE 1
On this page, I presented using the Lake
Applet a fine painting of the Pantheon by artist Giovanni Paolo Pannini,
(1691-1765). I prefer not to overload the Lake Applet or Sliderpuzzle pages
since downloading large pages is surely difficult for many visitors. Hence this
separate page of data, and also pages 2 and 3 also,
supplementary to that provided already, on the general subject of the Pantheon
in Rome, Italy.
The Webmaster has always had an
especial interest in history and matters archeological. When he visited Rome,
some years ago, the Pantheon was high on his list of places absolutely
not to be missed. And he did not regret his visit any more than did the
millions of visitors who have entered this very building in the past 1875
years! And been astonished at the breathtaking sight that they saw.
I cannot hope on this page to do
more than whet your appetite, and hopefully inspire you to learn more, if, that
is, you are so inclined. But ......
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What a structure!
What an achievement for its day and age! The interior is a sphere of 142 feet
in diameter. No metal reinforcement. No central pillar. Build of a form of
concrete that is so strong that is has lasted for almost 1900 years. And,
amazingly, built on marshy ground! How did the Romans make concrete that
lasts so long when modern concrete often crumbles in just a few years? That
is a subject that has fascinated people for years and is worthy of study
elsewhere for those who are interested. I learn that the cast concrete
coffers (each one once painted blue and with gilded bronze rosette), get
thinner and thinner as the walls rise and are thinnest of all at the
"oculus", the central "eye" in the centre of the ceiling,
8.7 metres (27 feet) wide, and the only source of interior light. The floor
slopes to permit rain water to be drained from the interior. The supporting
walls are especially designed and constructed to support the structure but
with minimal weight on the subsoil. The dome is 142 feet high - so what you
might say! To give a comparison, the dome of St. Peter's in Rome is 139 feet
in height. The nave at Chartres Cathedral in France is, I read, 140 feet in
height. The dome was, in fact, the largest dome in the world until Filippo
Brunelleschi conquered the technical construction problems at the Duomo in
Florence in 1420-36, about 1300 years later. The inscription on the Pantheon
portico translates as "Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, Consul for the
third time, built this". Hadrian did not, apparently, choose to put his
name on the buildings he constructed, or in this case reconstructed. Now I said on the
Lake Applet page that the "Lake" image is not as illogical as it
would first seem. On this page, I saw a small image of
another Pannini painting, a water colour, which shows a small boat inside
the structure. The River Tiber, a small river indeed when I saw it, has not
always been so small. Certainly the Tiber was once a major shipping route
into the City of Rome. In its early years, the Pantheon was inundated by the
flooding of the Tiber three or four times a year. Isn't that interesting!
Maybe it was still so in Pannini's time? I also find it interesting to read
that at one time the building was used as a poultry market! It is today a Catholic
church (Santa Maria della Rotonda) and has been since May 13, 609! |
In a Reuters report in a Toronto,
Canada, newspaper (September 10, 2002), I learned that the stone for the
portico of the Pantheon is not from a local Italian source. It would appear
that the stone that was used came from the Mons Claudianus quarry located,
amazingly, 500 kilometers south of Cairo and 120 kilometers east of the River
Nile. The article states that it would, two thousand years ago, have taken
between five and eight days by camel or donkey to get to the quarry from the
Nile. And the quarried stone would have to have been dragged overland (but not
in five or eight days!) and then be transported by water and sea to far off
Rome. Marijke van der Veen, of the University of Leicester in England, is the
archeologist who has excavated the Mons Claudianus site and also the adjacent
Mons Porphyrites site that was the source of the purple Porphyrite stone highly
prized for statues.
First the image that I used for
the Lake Applet page. Its source can be found below.
The painting above is, then, by
Italian painter Giovanni Paolo Pannini (1691-1765). (I guess it is correct to
call him Italian? "Italy" was a collection of city states, I thought,
until rather later in history). Pannini produced an amazing number of works
with some astonishing detail. Look at this image on Carol Gerten's CGFA site
(USA) or here, (Japan) to see a
particularly fine example. He would appear to have painted the Pantheon many
times. Here is a Pantheon painting in
the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. Here is
another from the Oglethorpe University Museum in Georgia. But the image that I
used is yet another Pantheon painting that came from a page that I can, alas,
no longer show you on an Italian site that has gone 'off the air'. I do hope
that there are no objections to my use of the image in this way.
By all means visit Artcyclopedia
for links to galleries and sites that feature Pannini's work. And do see this
fine site that
features no less than 58 Pantheon links. And drop in and enjoy this photograph by
Dan Heller, a commercial photographer based in California whose work certainly
inspires me. I know, having tried it myself, that photographing the interior of
the Pantheon in such quality is not a simple task.
When I have a moment, I will add
in some other references to "Pantheon" images and engravings and
provide more data about the artist. I include, today, just a couple of
engravings dating from the late 1800s. The beautiful image on the right, a wood
engraving, may well be of yet another Pannini original.
And now a composite image,
primarily based upon a medieval Giovanni Maggi map of Rome dating from 1625,
provided by Kalervo Koskimies, of Helsingfors, Finland. The Pantheon was at
that time a mere 1500 years old!. Two of the other thumbnail images originate
from Kalervo's splendid pages and I encourage you to spend some time at his
fine site. The
image below is, in fact, an image map so click the particular area of the image
to go to the source of the original, often giant, image (where available - the
architectural detail is from a print I saw on Ebay. And I cannot recall where
the photo of the "oculus" came from, so if anyone knows I would
appreciate being reminded). If you look at the
oculus in the image at the very top of this page, you will see what in fact are
two tiny brown-dressed people looking down through the oculus into the interior
of the building. If it interests you also, check the large size source for that
image. The "oculus" is amazingly large!
I have a couple of other interior
images that would normally merit inclusion. But they are in my view
"distorted" and by showing detail of the upper interior, make the
whole building seem vertically compressed. Hopefully I will find more material
that more correctly reflects the amazing reality