Art

Page 148-149

6–28 Exterior View and Plan of the Pantheon

Rome. 110–128 ce.

Although this magnificent monument was designed and constructed during the reigns of Emperors Trajan and Hadrian, the long inscription on the architrave states that it was built by “Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, who was consul three times.” Agrippa, the son-in-law and valued advisor of Augustus, sponsored a building on this site in 27–25 bce. After a fire in 80 ce, Domitian either restored the Pantheon or built a new temple, which burned again after being struck by lightning in 110 ce. Although there has been a strong scholarly consensus that it was Hadrian who reconstructed the building in its current state in 118–128 ce, a recent study of the brick stamps has argued convincingly that the Pantheon was begun soon after 110 under Trajan, but only completed during the reign of his successor, Hadrian.

The scene at the beginning of the spiral, at the bottom of the column, shows Trajan’s army crossing the Danube River on a pontoon bridge to launch the campaign ( fig. 6–26 ). Soldiers construct battlefield headquarters in Dacia from which the men on the frontiers will receive orders, food, and weapons. In this spectacular piece of imperial ideology or propaganda, Trajan is portrayed as a strong, stable, and efficient commander of a well-run army, and his barbarian enemies are shown as worthy opponents of Rome.

A handsome market was built into a hillside adjacent to Trajan’s Forum to replace a commercial district that was razed to make room for the imperial complex. Comparable in size to a large modern shopping mall, it had more than 150 individual shops on several levels and included a large, groin-vaulted main hall. The collective structures and spaces that make up the Forum and Markets of Trajan exemplify the finest in imperial city planning, satisfying both the needs of the citizens and the desire of the emperor for impressive public works and memorializing propaganda.

Trajan, and his well-educated and widely traveled successor Hadrian, were responsible for the most remarkable ancient building surviving in Rome, one of the marvels of world architecture in any age. This temple to Mars, Venus, and the divine Julius Caesar, known as the PANTHEON, was built between 110 and 128 ce ( figs. 6–27 ,  6–28 ). The entrance porch, made to resemble the façade of a typical rectangular Roman temple, was all that original viewers could see since their approach was controlled by an enclosed courtyard (see  fig. 6–23 ). The actual circular shape of the building was concealed. This theatrical presentation allowed the soaring and enclosing space of the giant  rotunda  (circular room) surmounted with a huge, bowl-shaped dome, 143 feet in diameter and 143 feet from the floor to its summit, to be a surprise encountered by viewers only after they passed through the rectilinear and restricted aisles of the  portico  toward the huge main door. Even without the controlled courtyard approach, encountering this glorious space today is still an overwhelming experience—for many of us, one that is repeated even on successive visits to the rotunda.