Engraved by J. Posselwhite.
BRAMANTE.
From a Portrait by Alessandro D’Este in the Collection of the Capitol, at Rome.
Under the Superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge
London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street.
He seems to have evinced, at an early age, a general feeling for poetry and art; and is said to have first studied painting assisted by the works of Fra. Bartolomeo Corradini. During a sojourn at Milan he obtained the friendship of the poet Gaspero Visconti, and in the capacity of a sonneteer and improvisatore exhibited an unusual facility of composition. Of his abilities as a painter in distemper and fresco, examples are to be seen in that city, and at other places in the Milanese territory. On his subsequent removal to Rome, he was employed to execute some paintings (which no longer exist) in the church of S. Giovanni Laterano.
Architecture, however, soon claimed Bramante as more particularly her own, and he manifested a zealous ardour in the study of classic examples. It does not appear that he published any volumes on the subject, but we are credibly informed that he industriously measured the ancient remains of Rome, and of Adrian’s villa at Tivoli.
The Cardinal Caraffa was among the first to form an estimate of his merits, and commissioned him to rebuild the cloisters of the Monastery della Pace at Rome. He also superintended the execution of the Trastevere Fountain for Pope Alexander VI., and erected great part of the palace della Cancellaria. The church of S. Lorenzo in Damaso, and the circular chapel in the cloister of S. Pietro in Montorio (where St. Peter is said to have been crucified) are also of Bramante’s architecture; nor should we omit to mention him as the designer of the palace in the Piazza di Scossacavalli, which for some time belonged to the English crown, and was presented by Henry VIII. to the Campeggi. Bramante’s designs for other palaces and churches were numerous. Several buildings in Milan are attributed to him, as well as an imperial palace for the Duke of Urbino (never finished), and the church dell’ Incoronata at Lodi.
The established fame of Bramante now recommended him to Pope Julius II., who had formed the idea of uniting the old Vatican palace with the Belvedere by means of a magnificent court, an engraving of which, as it was first executed by Bramante, is to be seen in the public library erected by the Corsini princes. The division of the court by the Vatican library, subsequently erected by Sixtus V., and other additions and alterations, have utterly destroyed the effect of Bramante’s design, though the principal architectural features still remain. Among these, in a lofty central pile of building, is a vast semicircular headed niche, the archivolt of which springs from the cornices of two lofty wing compartments, appearing, it must be confessed, more like the section of an interior, than an external elevation. It is as if the opposite walls in the length of a cathedral choir were taken away, the grand altar recess being alone suffered to remain; and it may be regarded as a very curious instance of a passion for the spherical vault, which thus prompted Bramante to turn it, as it were, inside out; and to take from the cellæ of the temples of Peace, and of Venus and Rome, the idea of the garden alcove.
Bramante was now high in favour with Julius II.; and, having invented an ingenious machine for stamping the leaden seals attached to the papal bulls, was rewarded with the office “del Piombo.” He attended the Pope to Bologna, when that city was united to the states pontifical in 1504, and served his Holiness in the capacity of military engineer.
Our account of Bramante now resolves itself into the history of St. Peter’s church, the antecedent progress of which may be thus briefly stated:—
St. Peter being buried within the site of Nero’s Circus, Constantine erected (A.D. 324) a magnificent church over the apostle’s remains. During the lapse of eleven centuries, it fell into decay, and in the pontificate of Nicholas V. (1450) a new building was commenced from designs by Alberti. On the death of Nicholas, the works were discontinued till Paul II. caused them again to proceed: but it must be understood that the structure then in course of erection was in a great measure mixed up with Constantine’s church, many remaining parts of which were to be incorporated in the new building.
The ascent of Julius II. to the papal throne was at that period, when the revived taste for classical architecture suddenly pervaded Italy, and left him assured of general support in his boldly formed resolution of demolishing the old building with all its subsequent amendments, and of erecting an entirely new structure, that should stand paramount in the modern world for vastness and splendour. It has been said, that the idea of the new church originated in a suggestion by San Gallo, that the gorgeous sepulchral monument which Julius, in honour of himself, had commissioned Michael Angelo to execute, should be placed in a church of corresponding grandeur, purposely built to receive it. Be this as it may, the new St. Peter’s was resolved on: designs were sent in by various architects, and several were submitted by Bramante, who proved, as might be expected, the successful competitor. His ideas were as colossal as the ambition of his patron:—“I will raise,” said the architect, “the Pantheon on the Temple of Peace!”
Bramante’s plan was a Latin cross. The area of intersection was to be surrounded with massive piers, having columns between as in the Pantheon; and the noble dome of the latter edifice, in the august novelty of its exalted position, was to be freely imitated. A medal struck in honour of Bramante shows the façade of his design, having two campaniles, or towers, flanking a central compartment. In examining the practicability of his plans, he failed not to inspect the quarries of Tivoli, and was confirmed by the discovery that they would yield him blocks of nine feet in diameter. Into the pecuniary means of construction he did not however so closely examine. The contributions of a world would have been necessary to the full realization of his plans, which were considerably reduced by succeeding architects.