How a Small Monument in a Courtyard in Italy Changed the World

My last art post was titled Six Sculptures, Six Artists, Six Styles, Across Five Centuries. Continuing in a similar vein I would like to shed some light on a brilliant but relatively unknown architect from the Italian Renaissance; a man named Donato Bramante. The images that appear in this article are all public domain (CC0) and do not require any attribution. But more significantly they will place Bramante's fingerprints on one of the most iconic features in modern architecture; the Dome. Of course, domes existed since the ancient world; the Pantheon for instance. And Brunelleschi set an octagonal dome atop Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence long before Bramante was born. What this piece hopes to prove is that Bramante changed the way all architects after him thought about the dome. Yet in spite of the ubiquity of Bramante's influence in important buildings the world over, he remains somewhat obscure. Many names of sculptors and painters from the Italian Renaissance are well known throughout the world. Wherever you find yourself on this planet, chances are the locals are familiar with names such as Leonardo, Michelangelo, even Raphael. Sculptors and painters seem to get the lions share of attention even though the Renaissance produced very fine architects, most of whom go unrecognized except by students of architecture. Francesco Borromini, Antonio da Sangallo, Leon Battista Alberti, Giacomo della Porta, and Michelozzo, will never be household names, but every one of them were immensely talented, designing beautiful buildings that can be seen and walked through today, primarily in Rome and Florence.
But it is one architectural masterpiece, just one, by the architect Donato Bramante, that I wish to focus on here.

If you are already familiar with Bramante's Tempietto, congratulations, you are way ahead of the curve. But if the word "Tempietto" doesn't ring a bell, keep reading, because the significance of this relatively small monument, called a Martyrium, hidden away in a courtyard in Rome, will blow you away. It will be one of those "why didn't I already know about this" kind of moments. The Tempietto is shown below.....look familiar?

This commemorative structure is situated in the courtyard of San Pietro in Montorio, a church built on Janiculum hill in Rome. There is much that can be said and written about the design of the Tempietto but for our purposes we need to look at just two innovative features that Bramante used here for the first time, and has been copied by later architects over and over again. First, there is the peristyle, that continuous row of Doric columns at the base of the monument, and second, the balustrade (railing) above the peristyle. Remembering these two features will help in viewing other domes in this article. San Pietro in Montorio is dedicated to Saint Peter and marks the spot where tradition says he was crucified. Bramante built the Tempietto (little temple) in the church courtyard around 1502. For context, Michelangelo was in Florence carving on his statue of David from 1501 to 1504. Great stuff was happening.
And here's a Renaissance six degrees of separation for you....the Tempietto was commissioned by Ferdinand and Isabella. Yeah, THAT Ferdinand and Isabella. So exactly ten years after the 1492 historic voyage of Christopher Columbus to the New World, the King and Queen of Spain commissioned this Martyrium (martyr shrine) in Rome. So? No big deal, right? These people commissioned artists and architects all the time. True, but the Tempietto is considered a masterpiece of High Renaissance Italian architecture that made its influence felt the world over, particularly in the New World that Ferdinand and Isabella played a central role in the "discovery" of. Note the word discovery is in parentheses, this is an article about art, not Spanish Colonialism.
So now that your curiosity is piqued, we should dwell for a bit on this guy Bramante. He was born in 1444 in the town of Fermignano, in what was then the Duchy of Urbino. Having lived to the age of 70, Bramante died in Rome in 1514, putting him in his late '50's when he designed the Tempietto. Though Bramante was considerably older than Michelangelo, he was a contemporary and competitor of his. Bramante's plan for the dome of St. Peter's Basilica was marvelous but he lost the commission to Michelangelo's design. The dome below is Bramante's rejected plan. Can you imagine how different the Vatican would look today had Bramante's design won out? Which do you prefer?

You can compare the Bramante conception for St. Peter's, above, and Michelangelo's design, below.

Bramante's plan consisted of a stepped dome similar to the one on the Roman Pantheon, sitting atop a peristyle of Corinthian columns. Interestingly, outside of the peristyle, Michelangelo's dome bears more resemblance to the Tempietto than Bramante's.

Two other characters played a big part in getting the Tempietto design out of the courtyard and onto drawing boards of architects everywhere: Andrea Palladio (1508–1580) and Sebastiano Serlio (1475–1554). Both Palladio and Serlio wrote influential books on architecture. Both men admired the Tempietto. The rest is history.
Palladio was a Venetian heavily influenced by Roman antiquities, and is considered to be one of the most influential persons in the history of architecture. Palladio never worked outside of the Venetian Republic but he wrote a book sort of patterned after The Ten Books of Architecture by his ancient Roman muse, Vitruvius. Palladio named his book I quattro libri dell'architettura or The Four Books of Architecture. Like they say, plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery.

The two men were a generation apart, Palladio being about six years old when Bramante died. Yet when Palladio published The Four Books in 1570 he included many architectural drawings of his own designs and examples of ancient Roman architecture. The only other architect featured in The Four Books was Bramante and his Tempietto. Palladio included a drawing (seen above) of the Tempietto that he sketched in the courtyard of San Pietro in Montorio. Of Bramante, Palladio wrote: “I thought it reasonable that his (Bramante’s) work should be placed amongst those of the ancients; accordingly I have included the following temple design by him on the Janiculum Hill.” Palladio considered the Tempietto as having achieved the essence of what everyone during the Renaissance, and after, was striving for, meeting or exceeding the accomplishments of the Ancients in the arts and architecture. Having his Tempietto placed in the same category as the works of the ancient Romans by a fellow architect and peer was the highest form of professional respect and honor that Bramante could receive. Palladio's Quattro Libri was widely published and translated, influencing architecture for centuries after its publication. Thomas Jefferson called his copy "The Bible", and used it as a guide in building his Monticello. Serlio's influence came through his treatise on architecture titled Tutte l'opere d'architettura et prospetiva or All the Works on Architecture and Perspective. Serlio included detailed elevation drawings of the Tempietto in this influential book.

But even in Bramante's time the Tempietto was begining to change the way domes appeared. Brunelleschi's earlier Duomo on the Florence Cathedral is octagonal in design and has none of the common design motifs we have come, since Bramante, to expect in a proper Dome.

You can see the evolution of the dome by comparing Brunelleschi's on the Florence Cathedral, seen above, to Michelangelo's on St. Peter's seen below, and Christopher Wren's on St. Paul's Cathedral seen at bottom.

You may or may not have noticed that so far all of the buildings topped with domes, before and after the Tempietto, were Churches, both Catholic and Protestant. There was a relationship between a round, domed, structure, and the sacred. William MacDonald, in his 1976 book, The Pantheon, dedicates an entire section to the very ancient practice of using round domed vaults as tombs called tholos. The Mausoleum of Augustus is such a tomb and can be seen in Rome today. The Roman Pantheon carries the round, domed, space of the tholos into the design of a temple. But always, from pre-Roman times, continuing into Roman architecture, and well into the Christian era, round, domed, structures had religious significance.
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, so looking below you can see an artists rendition of the tomb of Emperor Augustus built in 13-14 AD. Below that is the Roman Pantheon - 126 AD. Both are round. Both are domed. Both deal with the afterlife, the metaphysical.

The Enlightenment - from the French Revolution onward, both public buildings AND churches were adorned with domes based on Bramante's design, an architectural representation of the struggle between Faith and Reason that defined the Enlightenment in general and the French Revolution in particular, famous for its anti-clericalism and secularism. To 18th century French intellectuals the State was now god, or at least his equal. When we come to the Paris Pantheon later you will see what I mean. But first we have to look at what many consider to be the most majestic and faithful iteration of Bramante's Tempietto design done on a massive scale. Christopher Wren's dome over St. Paul's Cathedral, completed in 1711, was finished 209 years after the Tempietto, and almost as long after the 1537 and 1570 publications of Palladio's and Serlio's books with drawings of the Tempietto.

By Wren's time these two men's works on architecture had become canon, and they spread the dome, as conceived by Bramante, around the world. In Wren's dome notice in the photo the persistyle of columns and the balustrade above them. Unmistakably taken from the Tempietto. But note, St. Pauls is an Anglican Cathedral, not Catholic, as the Reformation is long past. The next upheaval in Europe will not be in religion, but in politics. Seventy-eight years after the completion of St. Pauls, the French Revolution begins, and an incredible Church designed by Jacque-Germain Soufflot became caught in the cross-fire. The Church was called St. Genevieve, but is known today as the Paris Pantheon. St. Genevieve was started over thirty years before the French revolution, in 1755, and completed in 1790, while the guillotines were lopping off the heads of thousands. This building suffered a severe identity crisis being caught between the secular and the sacred. It was laid claim to by both sides in a philosophical dispute, the secularists winning for good in 1885 when St. Genevieve officially became The Pantheon.

Pictured above is the Paris Pantheon, begun as the Church of St. Genevieve in 1755. It officially became the Pantheon in 1885. Pictured below is St. Petersburg, Russia's, St. Isaac's Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox Church designed by Auguste de Montferrand, and completed in 1858.

The French Revolution was preceded by the American Revolution, if only by a dozen years or so. The new nation needed a Capitol building befitting a fledling empire. Enter onto the scene an architect by the name of Thomas U. Walter. He conceived the majestic dome sitting atop the United States Capitol Building. Walter had traveled throughout Europe and was quite familiar with St. Pauls, St. Peter's, and the Paris Pantheon. Using his skills as an architect - he undoubtedly studied Palladio and Serlio- and inspired by earlier interpretations of the Tempietto, he put his own stamp on the world's domed buildings; and what a stamp it is. Walters' US Capitol dome is the apex, the ultimate conclusion of the Tempietto, and has, since its completion in 1866, become an iconic image.

Over a dozen US State Capitol Buildings also feature domes with roots reaching back to Bramante, Palladio, Serlio, and the domes of St. Pauls and the US Capitol. Below are images of just a few of them, including the Kentucky State Capitol, West Virginia, California, and Wisconsin.

Above is the State Capitol of Kentucky completed in 1910. Notice the pairs of columns as opposed to a continuous peristyle; a nod to Michelangelo's design on St. Peter's. Below is the State Capitol of West Virginia finished in 1932.

Above is the California State Capitol completed in 1874. Notice the peristyle and balustrade. Bramante!
Below is the beautiful State Capitol of Wisconsin finished in 1917. Again, note the round peristyle with the balustrade above. Another example of the overarching influence of Bramante reaching well into the 20th century.

Getting back to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain I wanted to add something. How amazing is it that 500 years after they played a part in Columbus' 1492 voyage Westward, bumping into the "New World" along the way, the Tempietto they commissioned has become the template for National and State Capitols, and churches across the world? The law of unintended consequences for sure.
The domes I have highlighted in this short article represent some, but certainly not all, of the Bramante inspired buildings of the world. There are many others worth mentioning but time and space precludes listing them all. For instance, the dome on the National Capitol Building of Cuba situated in Havana is worth bringing up on Google, as are the Deutscher Dom and the Franzosischer Dom located in Berlin, Germany. I do hope you enjoyed this architectural DNA examination of the domes adorning some of the world's grandest public buildings and beautiful churches. Resteem and up-votes are appreciated. Thanks for looking.
All of the images used in this presentation are in the public domain, category CC0.