The philosophy of the Enlightenment is nothing if not versatile. This can be readily observed in the contemporary world, with every side of any political fight claiming that “rights” and “reason” lend support to their arguments. This modern pervasiveness of Enlightenment thinking is perhaps a testament to its versatility, since no system of philosophy would be accepted by almost everybody if it couldn’t be adapted to serve a wide variety of ideologies. There is little better evidence for this fact than the popularity of Neoclassical architecture in pre-Revolutionary France. Despite the fact that we in the modern day often associate the Enlightenment with the birth of democratic ideals, notions of innate equality, and other necessarily anti-monarchical notions, many absolutist monarchs, noblemen, and other necessarily pro-monarchy people were very much enamored with Enlightenment thought. Voltaire famously believed that the best leader was an “ideal monarch,” and Catherine the Great of Russia, who corresponded with Voltaire in her youth, was famous for being “enlightened” (though she banned many of his books in her later life) (Britannica, Catherine the Great). Likewise, these leaders and their supporters were fans of the same Enlightenment-inspired Neoclassical architecture which would come in later years to be associated with radical democracies. Thus, there exists in Paris a building called the Panthéon, a Neoclassical structure built in the run-up to the French Revolution by the governments of Louis XV and Louis XVI. Neoclassical architecture was well-liked during the Enlightenment for several reasons, including but not limited to nostalgia for the work of the Renaissance and a renewed interest in the Classical world, but the primary draw was that the perfect proportions and geometric regularity of Neoclassical structures seemed to be expressions of pure reason, that highest of Enlightenment virtues, in the physical world. The Paris Panthéon, like other Neoclassical buildings built under royal regimes, claimed that reason for the monarchical state. The Panthéon, built starting in 1757 and completed in 1790 (Britannica), is a large mausoleum built from white marble. Initially conceived of as a church, it was reconsecrated as a secular structure after the Revolution and renamed the “Panthéon” due to its design, which was partly modeled on the Pantheon in Rome (Britannica, Panthéon). Owing to its original function, the Panthéon is structured in the traditional cruciform fashion of a Christian church, with an east-facing entrance at the end of the long “arm”. The building possesses two features of particular note. The first of these is the dome, which like the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London is placed atop a tholus (circular colonnade) of Corinthian columns, and whose design recalls the classically-inspired Tempietto of Bramante in Rome (Britannica, Tempietto). The second is its main facade, whose huge Corinthian triple colonnade supports a likewise-massive pediment that looms over the portico and the square it abuts. Despite the post-Revolutionary changes made to the structure, such as relief carvings depicting various heroes of the people and its rededication as a mausoleum for and memorial to the great citizens of France (Britannica, Panthéon), the Panthéon can be clearly read as a structure built in order to claim reason as an asset of the French crown. The visual scale of the building, emphasized by its tall, comparatively-narrow dome and the gigantic portico at its entrance, claims both space and attention for the building and therefore, by implication, the government with whose money it was built. Its cold style, meanwhile (the building is almost completely unornamented save for the Corinthian capitals of the columns) and perfect Classical proportions bring to mind a dispassionate rationality of the kind favored by the thinkers of the Enlightenment. The message is communicated simply and with great clarity: the government of France is an institution which highly values reason, and which one ought therefore to support, since according to certain strains of Enlightenment thought the most rational action one can take is to submit oneself to a rational authority. By positioning itself as that rational authority--as Voltaire’s “ideal monarch,” perhaps--the French crown was asserting that the new ideas being spread were fully in line with its continued rule. The fact of the French Revolution shows how well messages like this were taken, but nonetheless it is plainly evident that there has never been one single political philosophy which the Enlightenment could be said to unilaterally support.
Photograph: Camille Gevaudon Architect: Jacques-Germain Soufflot
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Panthéon,_Paris_25_March_2012.jpg https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pantheon-building-Paris-France https://www.britannica.com/biography/Catherine-the-Great https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tempietto