St Peter’s Basilica Essay Example

V in 1527 emptied the coffers, making further construction impossibility until much later. Sangallo the Younger proposed a design that was a conglomeration of Bramante, Peruzzi and Raphael.

His additions, completed in 1546 – also the year he died – were ungainly and under scaled classical orders for the north and south transept ambulatories. His primary practical contribution was to fortify Bramante’s piers which had begun to crack. In 1546 the Vatican, under the direction of Pope Paul III, had gathered enough funds to resume construction of St. Peter’s, and Paul III commissioned Michelangelo to oversee further development as architect-in-charge. Michelangelo drew on all previous designs of the other architects, refined them, and transformed them into his final vision (figure 3).

He reduced and simplified Bramante’s original Greek cross design, and increased the size of the piers supporting the dome. Michelangelo also was in correspondence with his nephew in Florence regarding Brunelleschi’s cathedral dome, which Michelangelo admired and was interested in emulating in his design for St. Peter’s. He wrote to his nephew “I am going to make its sister bigger, yes, but not more beautiful. ” Construction of the dome did not begin in Michelangelo’s lifetime. The architect Giacomo della Porta actually constructed the dome, and made some changes to the design for practicality.

He created a taller profile, reducing lateral thrust that would have been difficult for a masonry drum to withstand. Eventually a nave was added by Carlo Maderno and this reduced the impact of the height and massiveness of Michelangelo’s dome. During the counter-reformation the Catholic Church was greatly discouraging dissent and wanted artists/architects to return to glorifying

images of the faith and the church. The church used Baroque architecture, such as St. Peter’s, to demonstrate the splendor and grandeur of the church as a way of welcoming the wayward back into the fold as well as reaffirming the conviction of the faithful.