From Florence the movement spread to Rome and other cities, but Venetian Renaissance indicates undoubted evidence of Lombardic influence.
Until the end of the fifteenth century the period was one of experiment, but from 1500 to about 1560 the style may be said to have attained a phase distinct and local.
At first the various features, structural and decorative, were frank reproductions from the antique, which were studied and measured, and from which systems of proportion were deduced by various exponents, among whom the names of Vignola, Palladio and Serlio are conspicuous.
Rome
The Roman version of the Renaissance, as distinct from that of Florence, was less massive, Rome being comparatively free from insurrectionary troubles. Columns and pilasters were used to divide the façade into bays, or in the inner courts, which were frequently arcaded, and the principal entrance became a prominent feature.
The founder of the Roman school was Bramante, born in 1444 A.D., originally a painter, who was responsible for the original design of St. Peter’s, at the instigation of Pope Julius II.
The partly executed work was found to be too weak to bear the superstructure, and Bramante in the meanwhile dying, Raffaelle, Giocondo and Giuliano di San Gallo, and afterwards Baldazzare Peruzzi and Antonio San Gallo were engaged on the edifice.
No. 78. St. Peter’s, Rome.