PANTHEON,

ROME.

From a Drawing by C. Barry.

66

Simple, erect, severe, austere, sublime

Shrine of all saints and temple of all gods,

From Jove to Jesus-spared and blest by time;
Looking tranquillity, while falls or nods

Arch, empire, each thing round thee, and man plods
His way through thorns to ashes-glorious dome!
Shalt thou not last? Time's scythe and tyrants' rods
Shiver upon thee-sanctuary and home

Of art and piety-Pantheon !-pride of Rome!

Relic of nobler days, and noblest arts!
Despoiled yet perfect, with thy circle spreads

A holiness appealing to all hearts—

To art a model; and to him who treads
Rome for the sake of ages, Glory sheds
Her light through thy sole aperture; to those
Who worship, here are altars for their beads;
And they who feel for genius may repose

Their eyes on honoured forms, whose busts around them

close."

Childe Harold, canto iv. st. 146–7.

"WHETHER," says Hobhouse, in his "Historical Illustrations," "the Pantheon be the calidarium of a bath or a temple, or a single or a double building, it is evidently that structure of which the ancients themselves spoke with rapture, as one of the wonders of Romewhose vault was like the heavens, and whose compass was that of a whole legion.

"Notwithstanding the repairs of Domitian, Hadrian, Severus, and Caracalla, it is probable that the latter artist copied the old model, and that the portico may still be said to belong to the age of Augustus. Knowing that we see what was one of the most superb edifices of the ancient city, in the best period of its architecture, we are surprised, when, looking down on the Pantheon from one of the summits of Rome, with the mean appearance of its flat leaden dome, compared with the many towering structures of the modern town; but the sight of the portico from the opposite extremity of the market-place, in front of the Rotonda, vindicates the majesty of the ancient capitol."

"The first view of this building," says Dr. Burton, "will disappoint most persons. The round part may be pronounced decidedly ugly; and a Corinthian portico is certainly not so striking, when centuries have passed over it and disfigured it, as one of the Doric order. The two turrets, or belfries, a modern addition by Bernini, must offend every eye. The situation of

PANTHEON.

the building is also very bad, in a dirty part of the city, and closely surrounded with houses. The arches which appear in the second and third stories, are the continuation of the vaulting of the roofs which cover the chapels and the cavities cut out of the thickness of the wall. The portico, however, is a majestic structure. The most inexperienced eye would observe a want of agreement between this and the body of the building. The cornice of the one does not agree with the cornice of the other; and a singular effect is produced by there being a pediment on the temple, which rises above that of the portico, so that, in fact, there are two pediments. This has caused some controversy among the antiquaries; but it is now generally supposed, that Agrippa built the whole, though perhaps at different times, and the portico may have been an afterthought.

"The portico is 110 feet long, by 44 deep, supported by sixteen columns of the Corinthian order. Each is of one piece of oriental granite, 42 feet high, without the bases and capitals, which are of white marble; they are about 15 feet in circumference. . . . There is supposed to have been a bas-relief in the pediment; and, from the appearance of nails to fasten it, it was probably of bronze. Some fragments of a horse and car, discovered near the portico, confirm this idea. The ascent to the portico was formerly by seven steps,