Professor Butter Beard and the “Eye” of the Pantheon
“Simple, erect, sever, austere, sublime – shrine of all saints and temple of all gods, from Jove to Jesus – spared and blest by time.” – Lord Byron, referring to the Pantheon in his “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”
I have personally absorbed the beam of light from the Pantheon oculus three times. The first was during my first visit to the Eternal City and I admit to being a little tipsy from lunch in the piazza consisting of cockles, garlic and linguini and a few too many glasses of cool white wine on a very warm spring afternoon. The second was three days later. The weather had cooled due to a surprise daybreak rain shower and as I entered the rotunda for a second look, raindrops fell through the oculus and the reflecting light shimmered and danced on the multi-colored marble. The third magical moment was shared four years later with my master’s degree mates and Professor Richard Plant, who positively glowed with respect and awe when discussing emperor Hadrian and his passion for architecture. I long to immerse myself again soon in that magical ray from the heavens.
Many believe the Pantheon to be one of the best-preserved buildings from Classical antiquity, and its scale, stunning interior and graceful strength have earned it a special place in the hearts and minds of visitors to Rome. Michelangelo thought the Pantheon was “disegno angelico e non umano” (a design of angels, not men), while Henry James called it “by far the most beautiful piece of ancientry in Rome…. The very delicacy of grandeur.”
Hadrian dedicated the Pantheon to “all of the gods” around 125 CE, yet it is his predecessor Trajan’s signature brick stamps that appear throughout the building. Once set on a high podium, dominating a great rectangular colonnaded square, this Pantheon replaced the original dedicated by Agrippa in 25 BCE, twice destroyed by fire from lightning storms. Hadrian demonstrated his respect for Rome’s past by putting Agrippa’s name on the front: M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIVM·FECIT – “Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, made [this building] when consul for the third time.”
Roman writers give an idea of the appearance of the original Pantheon. The doorway with its massive, ancient bronze doors and surround, was originally flanked by colossal statues of Agrippa and Augustus (who reportedly turned down an honorary cult statue inside the building). The pediment was too shallow for statues, so Roman historians believe it was covered with decorated sheet bronze, perhaps showing an imperial eagle, recalling the story that a huge lone eagle perched on the Pantheon’s pediment at the exact moment of the death of Augustus.
Inside, the largest niche (now the apse, containing an icon of the Madonna) housed a statue of the deified Julius Caesar, accompanied by Venus and Mars. The historian Paul Roberts writes, “Venus’s statue wore earrings made from Queen Cleopatra’s expensive pearls. Cleopatra was submitting to Venus – and to Rome. The Pantheon was as much about statecraft as about religion.”
But it is the dome, soaring to over 142 feet above the visitor, that is the Pantheon’s most stunning feature. Roberts writes that “it is so tall that Trajan’s column, complete with its statue of St. Peter, could stand at the center of the floor and not touch the top.” Seen outside from the piazza, the dome (originally covered with gilded bronze tiles) appears flatter and springs from relatively high up. Inside, the dome springs much lower down. In fact, the dome’s diameter is the same as its height, creating the appearance of a perfectly balanced sphere.
This awesome vault, the largest dome anywhere until the 20th century, was possible only because of the Roman creation of concrete, and the use of different densities and weights of the poured concrete was key. The lowest sections use a heavier aggregate of crushed brick and mortar, while the highest sections surrounding the “eye,” contain lighter crushed tufa and volcanic slag from the Bay of Naples. The coffering panels, arranged in five rows of twenty-eight, reduced weight even further and are thought to have been originally painted deep blue, perhaps with central gilded bronze stars creating, in the poet Shelley’s words, “the unmeasured dome of Heaven.”
The great “eye,” or oculus, 28 ft across, lightens the dome at its weakest point. Historians now speculate that the Pantheon may have been, among numerable other things, a great sundial. According to Roberts, on April 21st, the legendary birthday of Rome, the beam from the oculus falls squarely on the great doors – perhaps for the symbolic entry of the emperor?
The rain that falls and drains away through originally designed holes in the floor has not always been appreciated, and in the 18th century, permanent glazing of the oculus was discussed. Supposedly, the British nurse Florence Nightengale, who visited in the 1840’s during a Mass after a downpour, was not impressed. She wrote her family that, “the reflection of people and candles on the watery floor made me think of the Underworld, with the souls of the dead near the River Styx.”
Well, that is rather dark, dear Florence! For me, that dance of reflection is one of the most vivid mental captures among my memories and has lulled me back to sleep on many occasions. In fact, it was just last night, when I couldn’t sleep after a night of amazing theater, that the beam of light through the dome’s eye morphed in my meditations into a shimmering red stained-glass window in the top pastry crust of a strawberry rhubarb pie. I know. Scientists would probably nervously giggle if they attempted to study how all my artistic visions morph into delicious baked goods. Maybe they would eventually see it as I do – that captured sunlight within the sweet fruit bursts forward, beckoning the soul to take a bite and absorb the energy. Or perhaps, I was just hungry.
Professor Butter Beard’s Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
One two-crust pie
Two-Crust Pie Dough (For summer fruit pies, I always use Dorie’s pastry recipe)
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 ½ tsp fine sea salt
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, very cold
¼ cup ice water
Strawberry Rhubarb Filling:
4 cups hulled and sliced fresh strawberries (slice the berries in half)
2 cups sliced fresh rhubarb (cut into about 1” pieces)
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup dark brown sugar
3 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp fine sea salt
1 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into four thin slices
Egg wash – 1 egg and 1 Tbsp heavy cream
1) For the dough: In a food processor, pulse together the flour, sugar and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the dry mix. Pulse until the mixture is just combined. Add the water and pulse until the dough just starts to come together. Empty the contents into a medium bowl, gather into a ball and divide the dough in half. Form each half into a disk 6” wide, wrap each in plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour.
2) Preheat your oven to 425 degrees and place a sheet pan on the center rack to pre-heat.
3) In a large bowl gently fold together the sliced fruits. In a medium bowl, whisk together the two sugars, the cornstarch, flour, cinnamon and salt. Fold this dry mix into the berries and let sit while you roll out the pie dough disks.
4) Roll out the first disk large enough to fit your chosen pie dish and leave a ½” overhang. Fit the bottom crust into the pie dish. Roll the second disk to the same size. Add the fruit onto the bottom crust and top with the four pieces of unsalted butter. Lay the top crust over the fruit and crimp the edges of the top and bottom as you wish.
5) Whisk together the egg and heavy cream to make a wash. Cut out a round disk in the center of the upper crust for ventilation while baking. Brush the top crust with the egg wash and sprinkle with granulated sugar (if desired).
6) Place the pie on the preheated sheet pan and bake the pie at 425 degrees for 10 minutes, lower the heat to 350 degrees and back for another 35-45 minutes until you see the center juices starting to bubble.
7) Cool the pie to at least room temperature on a wire rack before serving.
