Abstract
The impressions that traveller Franz Grillparzer entrusted to his diary reflected a frequently voiced disappointment of contemporaries when visiting the Panthéon in Paris. Jacques-Germain Soufflot’s Neoclassical design for the former church of Sainte-Geneviève inspired general admiration yet the Panthéon failed to live up to its fame as the repository of France’s great men. Much of its glory had been lost by the political infighting of the revolutionary days. The first inclusion, that of Mirabeau in April 1791, had also been the first exclusion; when the staunchly republican Jean-Paul Marat was pantheonised in 1794, the Convention unceremoniously transferred Mirabeau’s remains to an anonymous grave on one of Paris’ overcrowded cemeteries before admitting the ‘new God’ Marat.2 He was in turn depantheonised after the radicalism of the sans-culottes had ended. One tourist later compared the behaviour of French political elites to that of ‘Jupiter, who, according to his pleasure, chases away and receives gods on the Olympus’.3
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2012 Eveline G. Bouwers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bouwers, E.G. (2012). The Eclipse of Exemplarity: The Imperial Pantheon in Paris. In: Public Pantheons in Revolutionary Europe. War, Culture and Society, 1750-1850. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230360983_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230360983_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-33344-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-36098-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)