Reconstructing the Pantheon of Agrippa: Architecture, Sculpture, and Meaning

FAIN: FB-52661-06

Pieter B.F.J. Broucke
President and Fellows of Middlebury College (Middlebury, VT 05753-6004)

In my book, RECONSTRUCTING THE PANTHEON OF AGRIPPA: ARCHITECTURE, SCULPTURE, AND MEANING, I propose a new reconstruction for the precursor to Hadrian’s Pantheon. Seven research areas provide evidence for the building’s architecture: physical remains in situ; topographical characteristics; physical remains ex situ (Tivoli Caryatids, a frieze from San Lorenzo); identification of a structure on a relief as Agrippa’s Pantheon; sculptural program; and the Agrippan and Hadrianic Pantheons considered together. A structure emerges that is clear in its architectural organization and that must be understood in relation to Augustus’s Mausoleum, as part of a dynastic complex that played in important role in the first emperor’s consolidation of power.