Public Programs @ the Institute

Series: Ancient Seminar

Mark Wilson Jones, The Pantheon in Rome: decoding an enigma

Wednesday, October 8, 2025, 6:00pm

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Celebrated as a quintessence of imperial Rome and an unsurpassed feat both of engineering and architecture, for many the Pantheon is simply their favorite building. Texts, representations and imitations tell us of deep admiration going back to antiquity, and yet the resolution of its design has also been criticized as flawed, even inept. Enigmatic too are the origins of its plan, the phasing of the fabric, its purpose, and the very name Pantheum. Meanwhile, its inscription credits Agrippa, even though he built its destroyed forerunner, while the actual Pantheon is associated with Hadrian even though he only presided over its completion. Moreover, this emperor apparently had the likely architect, Apollodorus of Damascus, put to death over architectural disputes that it seems culminated over the Pantheon itself.

It's impossible to study the Pantheon today without confronting Wilson Jones's publications on the building. Still an ongoing obsession, this talk lays out a detective story that started with a young architect untrained in archaeology who could not square the evidence of his eyes with the literature. We will tease out lessons that the Pantheon holds for contemporary design and not just the classical tradition, while also looking to the future.

Despite its fame and significance, there has never been a major exhibition on the Pantheon – a gap crying out to be filled. Visual artist Kristin Jones will join to share a proposed artistic installation titled Oculus within the Pantheon itself. A selection of work distilling captivating geometrical explorations will be on display to further the discussion and illuminate the post lecture reception.

BIOS

Mark Wilson Jones is an architect and architectural historian, whose research has also had a significant impact on archaeology. Having trained at the University Cambridge – to where he has now returned – he won the Rome Prize in Architecture at the British School at Rome, an experience that led to scholarly endeavors and academic positions in Italy, the USA and UK. His interests revolve around design, starting with Greek and Roman antiquity, while his current research explores the ancient concept of imitation and its later evolution. Mark’s book Principles of Roman Architecture (2000) uniquely won both the UK’s then main architecture book prizes (RIBA and SAH GB) was followed by Origins of Classical Architecture (2014) and The Pantheon in Rome from Antiquity to the Present (2015), which won the PROSE prize (USA) for books in Classics. Aside from consultancies, fellowships, trusteeships, and a role evaluating UK research on the built environment, more unexpectedly Mark’s profile led him to return to practice for the reinterpretation of a ‘Roman Villa’ almost without parallel in modern times save for the Getty Villa in Malibu.

Kristin Jones works across disciplines and between Rome and New York City to create site-specific, time-based projects that frame natural phenomena against the built environment. Believing that art can be a catalyst for environmental awareness and urban renewal, Jones is best known for large-scale collaborative works for the public domain. Previously a member of the ‘Dream Team’ for the Hudson River Park master plan, in Rome Jones turned her imagination to the Tiber River, founding the Rome-based non-profit Tevereterno / EternalTiber. A three-time Fulbright Award winner and a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, her installations, works on paper and time-lapse photography have been exhibited internationally. Current projects include: Behold in New York City that begins at the foot of Manhattan’s oldest tree in Washington Square Park and Oculus, a multifaceted project about Rome’s Pantheon that begins with digital drawing experiments of the monument.