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
- Item sets
- Architecture Illustrations
Antoine Chrysosthôme Quatremère de Quincy (French architect, 1755-1849) and Jacques Germain Soufflot (French architect, 1713-1780), “Panthéon des Grands Hommes”, Texas Tech Arch Design Images -- Open Access Collections, accessed May 14, 2025, https://exhibits.lib.ttu.edu/s/openarch/item/18394