Invisible Cones of the Pantheon
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26375/disegno.17.2025.11Abstract
This essay focuses on one of the great wonders of the built world –the Pantheon, constructed around 126 AD– and, through drawing, proposes a possible clue as to how its form may have been generated in relation to human perspective. The oculus is interpreted as a lens, connecting the individual viewer to the infinity beyond. Between the circular opening above and the finite point of the observer below, an invisible geometry is formed: the cone. This central cone is understood as the building’s generative DNA, closely aligned with the internal workings of the human eye and the stereographic cones through which we perceive the world. [read more]
References
Bartoli, M.T. (1995). Scaenographia vitruviana: il disegno delle volte a lacunari tra rappresentazione e costruzione. In Disegnare. Idee, Immagini, n. 9, pp. 51-62.
Coarelli, F. (2014). Il Pantheon e Il Tempio Di Adriano. In L. Abbondanza , F. Coarelli, E. Lo Sardo (a cura di). Apoteosi da Uomini a Dei: Il Mausoleo di Adriano, Catalogo della Mostra, Roma 21 dicembre 2013 - 27 aprile 2014, p. 238. Roma: Munus; Palombi.
Curcio, C.A., Sloan, K.R., Kalina, R.E., Hendrickson, Anita E. (1990). Human Photoreceptor Topography. In Journal of Comparative Neurology 292, no. 4, pp. 497-523. DOI: 10.1002/cne.902920402.
Dio, C. (n.d.). Roman History, n. 53.27.2. <https://lexundria.com/dio/53/cy> (accessed 9 february 2026).
Euclid. (1945). The Optics of Euclid. H.E. Burton (trans. by). In Journal of the Optical Society of America, 35, no. 5, pp. 357-372.
Fernández-Cabo, M.C. (2013). Analysis of Different Hypotheses about the Geometric Pattern of the Pantheon’s Coffered Dome. In Nexus Network Journal, 15, no. 3, pp. 527-547. DOI: 10.1007/s00004-013-0165-5.
Graßhoff, G., Heinzelmann M., Theocharis, N., Wäfler, M. (Eds.). (2009). The Pantheon in Rome. The Bern Digital Pantheon Project. Plates. Pantheon 2. Bern: LIT Verlag.
Haselberger, L. (1995). Deciphering a Roman Blueprint. In Scientific American, vol. 272, n. 6, pp. 84-89.
Jones, M.W. (1989). Principles of Design in Roman Architecture: The Setting Out of Centralised Buildings. In Papers of the British School at Rome, 5, pp. 106-151.
Jones, M.W. (1999). The Practicalities of Roman Entasis. In L. Haselberger (Ed.). Appearance and Essence: Refinements of Classical Architecture: Curvature. Philadelphia: The University Museum-University of Pennsylvania, pp. 225-249.
La Rocca, E. (2015). Agrippa’s Pantheon and Its Origin. In Marder, Jones 2015, pp. 49-78. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139015974.003.
Lindberg, D.C. (1976). Theories of Vision from Al-Kindi to Kepler. Chicago-London: University of Chicago Press.
Marder, T.A., Jones, M.W. (Eds.). (2015). The Pantheon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Martines, G. (2015). The Conception and Construction of Drum and Dome. In Marder, Jones 2015, pp. 99-131. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139015974.005.
Radojevic, N. (2018). Generating the Pantheon’s Dome: Cultural Paradigms and Shape Grammars. In M. Rossi, G. Buratti (Eds.). Computational Morphologies, pp. 223-234. Cham: Springer International Publishing. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-60919-5_18.
Saccone, M. (2017). Disegnare il Pantheon. La pratica del rilievo nell’insegnamento accademico del XIX secolo e nel disegno digitale contemporaneo. Doctoral thesis in Architecture. Advisor prof. M. Canciani. Università Roma Tre. <http://researchgate.net/publication/321939079_Disegnare_il_Pantheon_La_pratica_del_rilievonell’insegnamento_accademico_del_XIX_secolo_e_nel_disegno_digitale_contemporaneo_Phd_thesis> (accessed 9 february 2026).
Silverstein, L.D. (2008). Foundations of Vision, by Brian A. Wandell, Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, MA, 1995. In Color Research & Application, 21, no. 2, pp. 142-144. DOI: 10.1002/col.5080210213.
Sparavigna, A.C., Dastrù, L. (2018). The Pantheon, Eye of Rome, and Its Glimpse of the Sky. Disponibile in SSRN. DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.3185748.
Sperling, G. (1999). Das Pantheon in Rom: Abbild und Mass des Kosmos. Horrea 1. Neuried: Ars Una.
Strasburger, H., Rentschler, I. Jüttner, M. (2011). Peripheral Vision and Pattern Recognition: A Review. In JOV, Journal of Vision, vol. 11, 13. DOI: 10.1167/11.5.13.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 diségno
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
