Pantheon Like Building example essay topic

The Pantheon was begun in 27 BC by the political leader Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, probably as a building of the ordinary classical type, rectangular with a gabled roof supported by a colonnade on all sides. It was completely rebuilt by the emperor Hadrian sometime between AD 118 and 128, with some alterations made in the early 3rd century by the emperors Lucius Septimius Severus and Caracalla. It is a circular building of concrete faced with brick, with a great concrete dome rising from the walls and with a front porch of Corinthian columns supporting a gabled roof with triangular pediment. The Pantheon is a truly large interior volume. Beneath the porch are huge bronze doors, 24-feet-high, and the earliest large examples of this type. The Pantheon is remarkable for its size, its construction, and its design.

The dome was the largest built until modern times, measuring about 142 feet in diameter and rising to a height of 71 feet above its base. The Pantheon has been an inspiration for architects and architecture. It is renowned as one of the most celebrated edifices in the world. How right this is can be seen by leafing through the illustrations of any standard history of architecture, noting how domed rotundas with temple-front porches appear. The Pantheons imagery expressed universality that made it possible for the building to be meaningful in different ways in different historical periods. It has always been a symbol of Rome, and of things Roman as they have been variously conceived over the centuries.

This came to stimulate and challenge architects almost as much as its imagery and design, especially from the early Renaissance onward when they began, through detailed measurement and study to try to decipher its ancient mysteries and make direct use of their findings. Only then did monumental rivals of the Pantheon appear, from the hands of Italian masters. The Pantheon has never been duplicated or copied, at any scale: each Pantheon like building is, to a greater or lesser degree, a free interpretation of the concepts established in Hadrian's day. The second important point is that the story of the Pantheon in architectural history divides into several clearly differentiated historical phases, the result of particular cultural and stylistic conditions, each phase characterized by an attitude toward the Pantheon that can be defined quite accurately. A third point is that after twin towers were added to the faa de in the early seventeenth century, architects had an additional theme to deal with.

In addition, there is the vexed question of the source of the original idea for a two-towered faa de on a domed rotunda, which was to have such a lively future in architecture. Finally, the means whereby each age learned about the Pantheon are significant, for they help to explain how its didactic role was sustained for so long. The Colosseum was built in 80 AD. It was built under three Flavian emperors Vespasian, Titus (Vespasian son), and Dominican (Titus nephew). The Flavian Amphitheater was to hold at least 50,000 people. The seats were ranked in order of social class.

For example, the Emperor had the best seats, and the women had the worst seats. The Colosseum had a removable canvas top. In order to do this, specially trained sailors that were known for their outstanding skills with rigging ships came. The large canvas top had a giant hole in the center to admit light.

There were four main levels in the Amphitheater. There were four levels on half of the Colosseum and on the other half, there were only two levels. The ground level, containing the columns, was Doric. Doric, is a classical style of architecture marked by fluted columns with plain capitals.

The second level is Ionic, meaning designating or have a Greek or Roman style of architecture, distinguished by ornamental scrolls on the capitals. The third level, Corinthian, and then fourth level is Corinthian pilaster. The Colosseum is 210 yards long, and 170 yards wide and fifty-five yards high. Made with more than 100,000 cubic yards of travertine stone to keep all the stone together the Romans had to use more than 300 tons of metal clamps. The Colosseum was in an elliptical shape. The arena was eighty-three yards by fifty yards.

There were eighty arches used as entrances and exits. Because there were so many entrances, the whole arena could be filled in eight minutes. Sometime around the birth of Christ, the Romans built a theater at Arausio in southern France. The theater had approximately 7,000 seats. It had a conventional design (just like Greek theaters were designed) with its steeply tiered rows of benches forming a semicircle around the proscenium. The stage, varying in depth from 40 to 50 feet, ran 210 feet along the base of the theaters 120-foot-high and 340-foot-wide stage wall.

The wall featured the statue of Caesar in an arched niche, which was above the center of the stage. The statue of Caesar (it is still in its place) was not destroyed or ruined despite all the earthquakes and vandal acts. The Roman Theater had bold dimensions and was famous for its excellent acoustics that was achieved thanks to the massive stage wall. Even on the furthest and highest seat if was possible to hear whispers. When the Roman Theater was built, it was not famous, since it should have been only a provincial theater. Later it became known throughout Roman Empire.

The theater is so well preserved that even today it is used as a musical and theatrical place.