Panthéon des Grands Hommes

Item

Title
Panthéon des Grands Hommes
Alternative Title
Église Sainte-Geneviève
Creator
Antoine Chrysosthôme Quatremère de Quincy (French architect, 1755-1849)
Jacques Germain Soufflot (French architect, 1713-1780)
City
Paris, Île-de-France, France
Address
Place du Panthéon
Location
France
Building Creation Date
1755-1837 (inclusive)
Century
18th century
19th century
Description
sections of the dome, sections
Early in 1755 Soufflot was appointed to provide plans for Ste Geneviève, the new church promised by Louis XV to house the reliquary of the city's patron saint. A collection of drawings (Paris, Bib. N.) and Claude Boulleau's engraving of 1764 show the building in its 'ideal' state in that year. Built partly over a crypt, where, for the first time, Soufflot used the Doric order of Paestum, it owes its grandeur to his use of the same colossal Corinthian order both inside and out. A heavy pediment emphasizes the dignity of the main entrance
this dominates the vast esplanade planned around the church. From 1791, following a Revolutionary decree, the church was altered into the Panthéon des Grands Hommes. Antoine Quatremère de Quincy had the buttresses demolished and, more crucially, the lower windows blocked up
this radically altered the lighting effects Soufflot had sought to achieve. Having removed the religious sculpture, Quatremère supplied a new programme for decorating the pediments (finally executed by David d'Angers in 1837). [Among those buried in its necropolis are Toussaint Louverture, Voltaire, Rousseau, Marat, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, Jean Moulin, Marie Sklodowska-Curie, Louis Braille, Jean Jaurès and Soufflot, its architect.]
Techniques
line drawings (drawings)
Classification
Architectural Documentation
Documentation Type
sections
Style/Period
Neoclassical
Cultural Context
French
Subject
architectural exteriors
architectural interiors
death or burial
rulers and leaders
Source
Blomfield Reginald Theodore, Sir. A History of French Architecture from the Death of Mazarin till the Death of Louis XV. 1. London: G. Bell and sons, ltd., 1921, CLXXVII.
Access Rights
Public Domain
creator
Quatremère de Quincy, Antoine Chrysosthôme
Soufflot, Jacques Germain

Antoine Chrysosthôme Quatremère de Quincy (French architect, 1755-1849) and Jacques Germain Soufflot (French architect, 1713-1780), “Panthéon des Grands Hommes”, Arch Design Images, accessed November 24, 2024, https://exhibits.lib.ttu.edu/s/archlib/item/18394