Reappearance of a Sketch for the Panthéon by Baron Gros

The Panthéon’s dome is a thorny subject in art history, as it was little understood and roundly reviled. Many remember the dry comment of Théophile Gautier, who considered “Baron Gros’s dome more of a circular history painting with a ceiling over it than anything else". Delacroix opined "Alas, how scanty, how unnecessary." In Les Souvenirs d'un artiste , Antoine Étex wrote that shortly after its unveiling, the honors received by the dome triggered the wrath of Gros's colleagues: "Old Broc put on a show for us youngsters, who admired Gros's paintings even when we heard him say to our master: ‘Gros is pathetic! Have you seen his dome for the Pantheon, which made him a baron?’ I also found my former teacher, Mr. Péron, at the Dupaty Studio. We all repeated in chorus Carle Vernet's pun on the dome of the Pantheon: 'c’est plus Gros que nature'…