Note 9 — INTRODUCTION
Reading edition
The present dome is a relatively late emendation; the original crowning feature was much less severe. Soufflot sent a pupil named Roche to London to make measured drawings of St Paul’s in 1776, the year before he prepared this design.
In general, the Panthéon appears much more Romantic Classical today than what Soufflot actually built. The towers which once rose over the corners of the portico—in any case disapproved by Soufflot—were removed by Antoine Quatremère de Quincy (1755-1849) in 1791, and he also filled up the windows that originally cut into the plain wall surfaces. The murals are all of the nineteenth century.