Jacques-Germain Soufflot, Church of
Ste-Geneviève (now Le Panthéon), Paris, France, 1755-90
Le Panthéon is
a civic building in Paris that originally started out its existence as the
Church of Saint Geneviève. The church was designed upon the request of King
Louis XV, by the architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot. The king saw the creation
of the church as a way to fulfill his father’s vow to rebuild the church; while
also using it as a symbol of the French Catholic church’s opposition to the
Roman Catholic Church.
The
church’s design was heavily influenced by the Enlightenment. During the
Enlightenment, the architects of the time started to analysis the architectural
styles of the past in more critical/scientific ways; in the attempt that they
could extract more of the reason and methods behind historical forms. This led
to the beginning of Neoclassical architecture. Neoclassical architecture sought
to use the forms of the Gothic and Greek/Roman, and use them a strictly ordered
and logical way. Neoclassical architecture sought to remove the excess ornamentation
(gaudiness) of Baroque architecture, and create more elegant (pure)
architecture. Soufflot, being one of the architects at the forefront of the
Neoclassical movement, used these principles to guide his design of the church
(and to symbolically support the king’s opposition of the Roman Catholic Church).
During
the French Revolution, the church would be converted into a secular civic
building, in which the revolutionaries would celebrate the great philosophers
and heroes of the revolution. The church was thus transformed from a reliquary
for the remains of Saint Genevieve into a mausoleum for the “great men” of
France. The building would literally become a pantheon. The revolutionist would
bring Voltaire’s remains to Le Panthéon July
1792 (14 years after his death). The building would later swing back and forth
between being a secular temple and a church five more times until finally
secularizing in 1885.
Voltaire was celebrated by the
French revolutionaries, although he did not live during the time of the
Revolution. He was celebrated for his ideals (especially his criticism of the
Catholic Church). The transportation of Voltaire was even noted as being part
of the revolutionary campaign against the traditional Catholic Church. (Guyot) How
much more ironic could it get? The revolutionaries’ way to get at the catholic
church was to put a man who was critical of the church in one of their former
churches.
Citations:
Laurent Guyot, “Transportation of Voltaire to the French Panthéon, 8 July 1792,” Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, accessed February 6, 2019, http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/138.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Panthéon.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 18 Jan. 2019, www.britannica.com/topic/Pantheon-building-Paris-France.
Ranogajec, Paul A. “Soufflot, The Panthéon, Paris.” Khan Academy, Khan Academy, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/monarchy-enlightenment/neo-classicism/a/soufflot-the-panthon-paris.
