Donato Bramante was an Italian architect, who introduced Renaissance
architecture to Milan and the High Renaissance style to Rome, where his
plan for St. Peter's Basilica formed the basis of design executed by
Michelangelo. His Tempietto marked the beginning of the High Renaissance in
Rome when Pope Julius II appointed him to build a sanctuary that allegedly
marked the spot where Peter was crucified. Donato Bramante was a "High
Renaissance" architect. Urbino and Milan
Bramante was born under the name Donato di Pascuccio d'Antonio, or Donato
Pascuccio d'Antonio, in Fermignano near Urbino: here, in 1467 Luciano Laurana
was adding to the Palazzo Ducale an arcaded courtyard and other Renaissance
features to Federico da Montefeltro's ducal palace.
Bramante's architecture has eclipsed his painting skills: he knew the painters
Melozzo da Forlì and Piero della Francesca well, who were interested in
the rules of perspective and illusionistic features in Mantegna's
painting. Around 1474, Bramante moved to Milan, a city with a deep Gothic
architectural tradition, and built several churches in the new Antique
style. The Duke, Ludovico Sforza, made him virtually his court architect,
beginning in 1476, with commissions that culminated in the famous trompe-l'oeil
choir of the church of Santa Maria presso San Satiro. Space was limited,
and Bramante made a theatrical apse in bas-relief, combining the painterly arts
of perspective with Roman details. There is an octagonal sacristy, surmounted by
a dome. In Milan, Bramante also built the
tribune of Santa Maria delle Grazie; other early works include the Cloisters
of Sant'Ambrogio, Milan, and some other constructions in Pavia and possibly
Legnano. However, in 1499, with his Sforza patron driven from Milan by an
invading French army, Bramante made his way to Rome, where he was already known
to the powerful Cardinal Riario. Rome
In Rome, he was soon recognized by Cardinal Della Rovere, shortly to become
Pope Julius II. For Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile or possibly
Julius II, Bramante designed one of the most harmonious buildings of the
Renaissance: the Tempietto of San Pietro in Montorio on the Janiculum. Despite
its small scale, the construction has all the rigorous proportions and
symmetry of Classical structures, surrounded by slender Doric columns,
surmounted by a dome. According to a later engraving by Sebastiano Serlio,
Bramante planned to set it within a colonnaded courtyard. In November 1503,
Julius engaged Bramante for the construction of the grandest European
architectural commission of the 16th century, the complete rebuilding of St
Peter's Basilica. The cornerstone of the first of the great piers of the crossing
was laid with ceremony on 17 April 1506. Very few drawings by Bramante survive,
though some by his assistants do, demonstrating the extent of the team
which had been assembled. 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. So Bramante's original plan was very much
more Romano-Byzantine in its forms than the basilica that was actually built.
Bramante also worked on several other commissions. Among his earliest works in
Rome, before the Basilica's construction was under way, is the cloister of Santa
Maria della Pace near Piazza Navona. The handsome proportions give an air of
great simplicity. Main architectural works
Santa Maria presso San Satiro, Milan, ca. 1482–1486
Santa Maria delle Grazie; Milan, 1492–1498
Palazzo Caprini, Rome, started around 1510
The Tempietto, San Pietro in Montorio, Rome, 1502
Santa Maria della Pace; Rome, 1504 St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, design 1503,
ground breaking, 1506 Cortile del Belvedere, Vatican City,
Rome, 1506.. See also
Leon Battista Alberti Michelangelo
Giorgio Vasari Notes
Bibliography Ackerman, James. The Cortile del
Belvedere. Vatican City: Biblioteca aspostolica vaticana. OCLC 2786997.
Bruschi, Arnaldo. Bramante. London. Davies, Paul; Hemsoll, David. "Bramante,
Donato", vol. 4, pp. 642–653, in The Dictionary of Art, 34 volumes, edited by
Jane Turner. New York: Grove. ISBN 9781884446009. Also available at Oxford
Art Online, revised and updated 31 March 2000; bibliography updated 26 May 2010.
Evans, Robin. The Projective Cast: Architecture and Its Three Geometries.
Cambridge. Frommel, Christoph Luitpold. Der
Römische Palastbau der Hochrenaissance. Tübingen.
Frommel, Christoph Luitpold. The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance.
London. Lotz, Wolfgang. Architecture in Italy
1500–1600. London. Heydenreich, Ludwig H.. Architecture in
Italy 1400–1500. London. Thoenes, Christof. Sostegno e
Adornamento. Milan, 1998. Fortunato, Giuseppe. "The role of
architectural representation for the analysis of the built. The 3d survey of
San Pietro in Montorio's temple in Rome". Acts of X Congreso Internacional
expresiòn gràphica aplicada a la edificacìon, Alicante,Editorial Marfil",
S.A. ISBN 978-84-268-1528-6. External links
Donato Bramante Source Information, Pictures & Documentaries about Donato.
Leonardo da Vinci: anatomical drawings from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle,
exhibition catalog fully online as PDF from The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
which contains material on Donato Bramante