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The Pantheon

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The Pantheon
The Pantheon One of the more inspiring and brilliantly conceived and constructed dome structures in the world is the Pantheon of Rome. This example imposes a magnificent strength of ingenuity and dominance over their surrounding landscape, and the Pantheon deserves to be researched and admired for its architecturally innovative and bold design of its time. The building was accommodated with serious technical impediments that required a thorough and scrutinizing attention to detail in order to overcome. It is because of the prevailed obstacles by the various designers, architects and builders of this building that captures the consideration of those interested in the development of building technology and progress throughout the history of dome architecture and architecture in general. Considering the mastery of building techniques and materials of the time the buildings were erected, it is still quite impressive how immense and concise the overall structures were and still remain to this day. Clearly much thought and extensive planning were performed to conceive and materialize such behemoths of architectural prowess and innovation. THESIS; Although the Pantheon and its adjoining Dome are many centuries old, their architectural competence and proficiency of structural design have withstood the test of time and is noted as a penultimate example of Dome architecture. In order to fully appreciate the grandeur of the Pantheon, a look at its formal qualities should be taken into account. The overall form of the Pantheon consists of primarily geometric and volumetric shapes such as the triangle, rectangle, cylinder and sphere when viewing the structure in its most reduced form(s). When looking further into each varying form, a world of detail and complexities are uncovered. For instance, the entablature above the columns houses a highly detailed and intricate array of relief sculptures each encompassing their own unique set of formal qualities. Although there

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    Bibliography: “Apollo, Augustus and Actium: Emerging imperial themes in Temple of Apollo”. M. Fabius, Ancient Worlds: The Roman World. http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Article/1208292 (accessed on May 12, 2013) Augustus, Monumentum Ancyranum edited by E. G. Hardy. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1923. Crouch, Dora. P. History of Architecture: Stonehenge to Skyscrapers. USA: McGraw-Hill, Inc, 1985 Gurval, Robert Alan. Actium and Augustus: The politics and emotion of civil war. USA: The University of Michigan Press, 1998 Grundmann, Stefan, 2nd revised ed., The Architecture of Rome: An architectural history in 402 individual representations. London: Edition Axel Menges, 2007. Hekster, Oliver and John Rich. “Octavian and the Thunderbolt: The Temple of Apollo Palatinus and Roman Traditions of Temple Building. The Classical Quaterly 56 (2006): 149168 Phillips, Darryl A. “The Temple of Divius Julius and the Restoration of Legislative Assemblies under Augustus”. Phoenix 65 (2011): 371-388 Roller, Duane W. “The Temple of Mars Ultor: What Was Being Avenged?”. Ohio State University(2009), http://www.camws.org/meeting/2009/program/abstracts/09C1.Roller.pdf (Accessed on May 12, 2013) Sear, Frank. Roman Architecture. London: BT Batsford Ltd, 1989. Stamper, John. W. The Architecture of Roman Temples: The Republic to the Middle Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Thorpe, Martin. Roman Architecture. London: Bristol Classical Press, 1995. Ward-Perkins, John Bryan. Roman Imperial Architecture, Victoria: Penguin Books Australia, 1981…

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