THE STYLE OF LOUIS XVI. 



457 



437- 



PANTHEON : SECTION THROUGH TRANSEPTS. 

 FROM LEGRAND. 



and reduction in the 

 number of parts. He 

 replaced the three 

 vertical divisions and 

 the two lower storeys 

 by a single Corinthian 

 portico, nearly the full 

 width of the building, 

 with a pediment stop- 

 ping against an attic. 

 Above the level were 

 one-storeyed octagonal 

 towers with circular 

 unpierced cupolas. 



PANTHEON. The 

 greatest achievement 

 of the whole century 

 in church building was 

 Ste Genevieve, now 

 known as the Pan- 

 theon, by Soufflot. In 

 his design for the rebuilding the church of the patron saint of Paris, 

 which was selected by competition, he attempted to reproduce the portico 

 and dome of the Pantheon at Rome, giving the latter the proportion of 

 that of St Peter's. The desire to accomplish this feat, and to eclipse 

 the existing domed churches of Paris, and more particularly the In- 

 valides, seems to have prompted him far more than that of providing 

 a building suitable for Catholic worship, with the result that his 

 church has proved well adapted for the totally different purposes of a 

 Valhalla. 



Plan. The church is on a Greek cross plan (Fig. 436) so arranged 

 that the arms and the central choir form five equal squares. This cruci- 

 form space is enclosed in a colonnade, between which and the outer wall 

 runs a narrow aisle. The squares are five intercolumniations wide, but 

 in the sides of the central square the two middle columns are omitted, 

 and the group of three columns left at each of its angles are built up 

 solid in a triangular pier as a preparation for the dome, thus reducing 

 the central space to an octagon. In the four arms an additional column 

 is inserted in each angle, opposite the second and the fifth column, thus 

 turning the square into a cruciform space. It was Soufflot's intention 

 to make the arrangements of each arm identical, but he was forced to 

 make concessions to clerical conservatism. Accordingly, at the west 

 end a sort of narthex is substituted for the aisle, and a hexastyle portico 

 is placed in front of it. At the east end the aisle is similarly widened, 



