185 years ago, at dawn on 31/08/1837, the pediment of the Pantheon was unveiled to the public in the most discreet way. It was a humble beginning for the masterpiece created by the sculptor Pierre-Jean David, known as David d'Angers, between 1831 and 1837. In the centre, the Motherland distributes to great men, both civil (on the left, scientists, writers, politicians, magistrates, lawyers) and military (on the right, Napoleon Bonaparte as a republican general surrounded by his soldiers), the wreaths handed to her by Liberty, while History inscribes their names. An imaginary bird in a crown, a cross between the republican cockerel and the imperial eagle, adorns the base. Seven years after it was commissioned, the pediment had become anachronistic in the political context of 1837, as David d'Angers remained true to the spirit of the July Revolution of 1830, while the government of Louis-Philippe would have preferred the artist to be more in tune with the appeasement of revolutionary passions that was now on the cards. It was therefore at the end of a compromise that led to the absence of a formal inauguration that the 4th version of the pediment escaped destruction, and that the inscription "To great men, the grateful motherland" from the 2nd version by Jean-Guillaume Moitte (1793) was repositioned at the top of the monument that had had a turbulent existence. After temporarily becoming a place of worship again in 1852 under the Second Empire, the Panthéon was officially dedicated to honouring great men again with the admission of Victor Hugo in 1885, and in 1995, with the entrance of Marie Curie (1867-1934), the Motherland also became grateful to exceptional women. To learn more about the pediment and the dome of the Pantheon, which from the top of its 83m wonderfully dominates Paris, please refer to Looking Up Paris. Enjoy your visit!
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