High Renaissance Bramante and the Essay

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The second stage was of the Ionic order and with windows, rising to the level of the first apartments of the papal palace and of those of the Belvedere; to form subsequently a loggia more than four hundred paces on the side towards Rome and another towards the wood, with the valley between, so that it was necessary to bring all the water of the Belvedere and to erect a beautiful fountain" (Vasari, 2006, Donato Bramante).

The work combined elements of a variety of sacred and secular Roman architecture in its inspiration and design. Its "axiality recalled the ancient temple complex at Palestrina, the symbolism of the Cortile del Belvedere (1507-7) combined overtones of Roman villa and theatre" (Donato Bramante, 2011, Encyclopedia of Art). Unlike the anonymous artists of the Gothic era, Bramante proudly created a frieze on the front of the Belvedere which bore the name of his patron the Pope and also his own, celebrating his achievement. The antique gallery in the Belvedere contained statues of Greek antiquity (Vasari, 2006, Donato Bramante). This willingness to proudly take credit for his labor and to include images that celebrated the beauty of the human form, including works that predated Christianity, embodied a spirit of intellectual tolerance that could not have existed previously.

What was supposed to be Bramante's greatest work, the complete rebuilding of St. Peter's basilica, was never fully realized, but of the designs that remain it was clear that Bramante envisioned a far more Roman-like conception of St. Peter's than what was eventually constructed: "Bramante's vision for St. Peter's, a centralized Greek cross plan that symbolized sublime perfection for him and his generation …was fundamentally altered by the extension of the nave after his death in 1514. Bramante's plan envisaged four great chapels filling the corner spaces between the equal transepts, each one capped with a smaller dome surrounding the great dome over the crossing" (Donato Bramante, 2011, All About).

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Bramante's was succeeded by a number of architects, finally cumulating in his successor Michelangelo: "Michelangelo returned to the fundamental ideas of the brilliant creator, and by the completion of the dome substantially carried the work to a conclusion. The curvature of the dome is not quite as bold and effective as that planned by Bramante; on the other hand it offers in its greater rise, a much more elegant and vigorous silhouette" (Donato Bramante, 2011, New Catholic Encyclopedia).

Bramante's unapologetic merging of Christianity and pagan designs, and using pagan structures and architectural models to advance sacred concepts was to define much of the later art and architecture of the Renaissance. Domes that recalled the Pantheon to the gods now celebrated the Papacy. The open Roman gardens and homes of the past mirrored the layout for exterior structures of centers of religious life. There was a harmony and clear, symmetrical planning to the layout of Bramante's works, versus the chaos of the Gothic. Instead of asymmetry and grotesqueness, the beauty of human form and the intellectual achievements that made architecture and art possible were manifest in all of the Bramante's works and many of those who succeeded him......

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