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April 19, 2007
Pantheon Tales
I'm teaching the Pantheon today in Roman Art & Politics. It is the greatest building in the world.
I haven't seen Hagia Sophia yet, and it might be as great, but that's the only contender I can think of.
The Pantheon is a triumph of simplicity and complexity - and my job today is to get them to see both while understanding the fundamental mystery of the building - we don't really know what it was. For such an amazing building there are precious few references to it in surviving Roman writing. Its name doesn't tell us much, because it replaced a previous building called The Pantheon - hence the inscription naming Agrippa as the builder, even though the building we see was built by Hadrian. That's a stumper.
Oh - and I'll address the second thing out of every student's mouth when walking into the building - "I've heard that when it rains the rain doesn't fall through the hole in the roof."
Nope. There's even a drain in the middle of the floor. Sorry.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at April 19, 2007 6:57 AM