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Pantheon of Agrippa, now Church of St. Mary ad Martires
commonly called The Rotunda
PANTEON D'AGRIPPA, OGGI CHIESA DI S. MARIA AD MARTIRES DETTA LA ROTUNDA.
This magnificent temple, the most celebrated f monument remaining of antiquity, is the masterpiece of Roman architecture ; the solidity of the edifice, the elegance of its form, the exactness and regularity of its proportions, have obtained it the admiration of all the world. The inscription on the front of the portico, says it was built by M. Agrippa, son-in-law of Octavius Augustus, in his third consulship, about twenty-seven years before the Christian era; it was repaired by Septimius Severus, and Caracalla. It was dedicated by Agrippa to Mars, and Jupiter Avenger, in memory of the victory obtained by Augustus over Mark Antony and Cleopatra; it contained the statues of all the gods, in bronze, in silver, in gold, or in precious stones, which gave it the denomination of Pantheon, a Greek word, signifying an assemblage of all the divinities.—Antiquaries and architects have been of various opinions about this edifice; some imagine that it was only a vestibule to Agrippa's baths; but all the ancient writers agree in calling it a temple, others suppose that he merely made the portico, and that the temple had been constructed previously by some other consul, and found their opinion upon the difference of the architecture ; that of the portico being better than the other part of the temple. But this is no reason for believing it to have been built by different persons; for M. Agrippa himself, after the construction of the temple, might have employed a different architect for the portico, in order to render the appearance of the whole more perfect and striking.
The portico was formerly ascended by five steps, which made it much more majestic than at present, there being only two. This superb portico is 103 feet long and 6l wide ; it is decorated with sixteen magnificent pillars, all made out of one piece of oriental granite. They are of the Corinthian order, fourteen feet in circumference, and thirty-eight and a half high, without the base and Capital which is of white marble. The eight pillars in front, are of red granite, and sustain an entablature and frontispiece of the finest proportion that can be made in architecture.
The plates of bronze which covered the beams of the portico ceiling were all taken away by order of Urban VIII., partly for the construction of the great canopy of St. Peter's cathedral, and the rest for the guns at Fort St. Angelo. The nails only weighed 9,374 pounds ; the total weight of this bronze was 450,280 pounds. The walls of the portico, between the pilasters, are covered with marble, on which are finely sculptured, cups, candelabras, &c. In the large niches to the right and left were placed the statues of Augustus and Agrippa. This portico forms a grand entrance to the great door of the temple ; the threshold is of African marble, the door-posts and architrave are of white marble. This door, which opens on pilasters of fluted bronze, is covered with plates of bronze, and was substituted for an ancient one, carried away by Genseric, king of the Vandals. The interior of the temple is not less fine'and majestic : its circular form has given it the name of Rotonda, as well as Pantheon. The diameter is 132 feet, and the height from the pavement to the summit is the same as the diameter; the thickness of the wall which surrounds the temple, is nineteen feet; the bases of the pillars shew, that the pavement was formerly lower than the portico, which rendered the entrance still more majestic and noble. The temple receives light only from one circular opening in the middle of the ceiling; the diameter of it is twenty-six feet, and it is reached by a staircase of 190 steps, placed on the outside.
The choir of the great altar is formed of a semicircle hollowed in the wall; the great arch, similar to the one at the entrance, is adorned with two thick fluted columns of antique yellow marble. The six chapels around the temple are likewise hollowed out of the wall: each one is decorated with two pilasters, and two isolated Corinthian columns, exquisitely fluted; eight are of violet marble mixed with yellow, and four are of antique yellow marble; they are five and a half feet in diameter, and twenty-seven and a half high, without the base and capital, which are of white marble; these columns and pilasters sustain an entablature of white marble that runs all round the edifice; the frieze is of porphyry. Over this order is a sort of attic, with fourteen windows, that formerly lighted the six hollows of the chapels, they are now closed up; there is also an entablature on which the great arch rests. It is supposed that the famous Cariatides of bronze, made by Diogenes of Athens, and mentioned by Pliny, stood be
tween the windows. Around the temple, between the interior chapels, are eight altars adorned with two small Corinthian pillars which sustain a frontispiece. The walls are covered with different marbles up to the entablature, and the pavement is the same. This superb temple, after various repairs and changes, was given by the Emperor Phocas, in 609, to Pope St. Boniface IV., who made a church of it, dedicated to the Virgin and the Holy Martyrs, a quantity of whose relics he placed under the great altar; it is therefore called St. Mary ad Martyres. In 830, Gregory IV. dedicated it to all the saints, whose festival he then instituted. Urban VIII. repaired the church, and had the two steeples made by the Cav. Bernini. Alexander VII. replaced the two pillars which were wanting on the right side of the portico, and made new capitals to them; the arms of his family (Chigi), are sculptured thereon. These two pillars were found near the Piazza S. Luigi de' Francesi, and are almost proportioned the same as the rest of the portico pillars. Lastly, Benedict XIV. polished these pillars, and repaired the ceiling of the church, which was falling to ruins. The pictures of the -altars are by Mathew de Majo Clement Majoli, Peter Paul Gobbo, Lorenzo Ottone, and Labbruzzi. Belonging to this church is a society of painters, sculptors, architects, and other persons of merit; who have ' there raised several monuments to celebrated men. The first bust on the right is of Peter Metastasio, the renowned poet, who died at Vienna in 1782, made by Joseph Ceracchi, by order of Cardinal lliminaldi. Next is the bust of Peter Bracci, a Roman sculptor. Next to that, the bust of John Pikler, a famous engraver of hard stones. The following is the bust of Ridolfino Venuti, antiquarian, sculptured by Philip Albacini. In the next chapel is the tomb of Cajetan Rapini, architect. The busts, which reach to the great altar, are of different ecclesiastics.
On the altar, next the great one, is the statue of St. Anastasius, by Francis Moderati. The bust, to the right, is of Camillo Rusconi, sculptor. The two following busts were sculptured by Paul Naldini, at the expense of Carlo Maratta; one is the celebrated Annibal Caracci; the other the immortal Raphael Sanzio da Urbino, who died in 1520, aged thirty-seven.
Under his bust is the following distich, composed by Cardinal Bembo:—
Hie hie est Raphael, timuit quo sospite vinct
Return magna Parens, et moriente mori.
These lines have been perfectly translated into Italian by Bellori:
Questi i quel Rafael, cui vivo vinta
Ester temeo Nalura, e morto estinta.
The statue of the Virgin, between these busts, was made by Lorenzetto, by order of Raphael.
In the following chapel, is the bust of Anthony Sacchini, the famous Neapolitan composer of music. Above this is the bust of Anthony Allegri, commonly called Corregio, the renowned painter; opposite, is that of Andrew Palladio, a capital Venetian architect; both these have been raised and sculptured by the immortal Canova. On the left side of the next altar is the bust of Mengs, the celebrated Saxon painter, who died at Rome, in 1779.
The next is the bust of Nicholas Poussin, a French painter of great merit; raised by the Chev. Agincourt, well known in the republic of letters.
The statue of St. Joseph, in the next chapel, is by Vincent Rossi. Here are also several busts; one of Corelli the best violin player ever known in Italy: that of Thaddeus Zuccari, a famous painter; Flaminio Vacca, the renowned sculptor; and Pierin del Vaga, who, under Raphael, was the restorer of the ancient grotesque style of painting.
Near this chapel is the bust of Winkelmann, the famous German antiquary; and of the Cav. Mark Benefiale,a capital painter of the last century.
The baths of Agrippa, the first that were made in Rome with magnificence, were behind this temple, but without any communication.
There are some remains of these baths in the sacristy of the church itself; also, near the Piazza S. Giovanni della Pigna, supposed to be part of the Calidarium, vulgarly called Arco della Cimbella, on account of a large bronze crown that was found near the place. It is said that these baths stood exactly on the Marsh Caprea, near which Romulus was assassinated, by order of the senators, whilst he reviewed the soldiers.
PIAZZA DELLA ROTONDA,
(Rotunda Square.)
After the devastations of Rome, this square was buried under the ruins of various ancient edifices, until Eugene IV. freed it. The two lions of Basaltes, now at the fountain of Termini, were then found near the portico of the pantheon. The superb porphyry urn, now in the Corsini chapel at St. John Laterano, was also found there; likewise a bronze head of M. Agrippa, a horse's foot, and a piece of wheel, all in bronze. The fountain in the middle of this square was afterwards made under Gregory XIII., by Honorius Lunghi; Clement XI. placed on it the obelisk, before situated near the church of St. Ignatius, in the Piazza S. Macuto, where Paul V. had erected it. This little obelisk is of Egyptian granite, covered with hieroglyphics : it was found in laying the foundation of the convent annexed to the church of Minerva; it had been placed before the temple of Isis and Serapis, near Minerva's.
A new Picture of Rome, and its Environs, in the form of an Itinerary -
Mariano Vasi -
1819
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