St Peters Basilica and Architect Andrea Palladio

1. HIGH AND LATE RENAISSANCE
• St Peters’ Basilica, Rome
• Architect Andrea palladio
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2. DONATO BARMANTE(1444-1514)
Reconstruction of St. Peters Basilica
(Vatican city, Rome) 1503-1506
Santa Maria della Grazie (Milan)1492-1498
Santa Maria della Pace (Rome) 1504 Cortille del Belvedere
(Vatican City, Rome) 1506
The Tempietto,
Rome, 1502
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3. ST. PETERS’ BASILICA (BASILICA PAPALE DI SAN PIETRO IN VATICANO)
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4. ARCHITECTS OF ST PETERS BASILICA
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1. Donato Bramante
Bramante proposed a Greek Cross plan, the centre of which would be surmounted by a
dome slightly larger than that of the Pantheon.
2. Giuliano Da Sangallo
He strengthened and extended the peristyle of Bramante into a series of
arched and ordered openings around the base. In his hands, the rather
delicate form of the lantern, based closely on that in Florence, became a
massive structure, surrounded by a projecting base, a peristyle and
surmounted by a spire of conic form, but the plan was simply too eclectic
to be considered.
3. Raffaello Sanzio
The main change in Raphael's plan is the nave of five bays, with a row of complex apsidal
chapels off the aisles on either side.
4. Baldassare Peruzzi
Maintained changes that Raphael had proposed to the internal arrangement of the three
main apses, but otherwise reverted to the Greek Cross plan and other features of
Bramante.

5. ARCHITECTS OF ST PETERS BASILICA
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5. Antonio Da Sangallo The Younger
Main practical contribution was to strengthen Bramante's piers which had begun to crack.
6. Michelangelo
He reverted to Bramante’s original design, the Greek Cross and converted its snowflake
complexity into massive, cohesive unity.
7. Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola
Appointed by Pope Pius V as a watchdog to make sure that Michelangelo's plans were
carried out exactly after his death.
8. Giacomo Della Porta
He subsequently altered Michelangelo’s design by adding of lion's masks over the swags on
the drum in honor of Pope Sixtus and adding a circlet of finials around the spire at the top of
the lantern, as proposed by Sangallo. Also proposed to raise the outer dome higher above
the inner one.

6. ARCHITECTS OF ST PETERS BASILICA
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9. Carlo Maderno
He made the most significant contribution since Michelangelo, because he pulled down the
remaining parts of Old St. Peter’s and proceeded to transform Michelangelo's centralized
Greek-cross design into a Latin cross with a long nave.
10. Gian Lorenzo Bernini
He was regarded as the greatest architect and sculptor of the Baroque period. Bernini's
works at St. Peter's include the baldacchino, the Chapel of the Sacrament, the plan for the
niches and loggias in the piers of the dome and the chair of St. Peter.

7. BRAMANTE’S PLAN
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Donato Bramante won Pope Julius II Della Rovere’s design contest for the new church. Bramante
proposed a Greek Cross plan, the centre of which would be surmounted by a dome slightly larger than
that of the Pantheon.

8. RAPHAEL’S PLAN
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Raphael’s plan was for a basilica in the form of a Roman Cross with a short pronaos and a façade.

9. MICHELANGELO’S PLAN
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Michelangelo changed Bramante’s plan for a balanced and restful dome into a dynamic construction. He
put a drum(ring) at the base of the dome that appears to be squeezing the dome and forcing its sides to
spring upwards. He shortened Raphael’s nave, but Carlo Maderno added back the nave and added the
famous façade.

10. CARLO MADERNO’S PLAN
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He made the most significant contribution since Michelangelo, because he pulled down the remaining
parts of Old St. Peter's and proceeded to transform Michelangelo’s centralized Greek-cross design into a
Latin cross with a long nave.

11. CARLO MADERNO’S PLAN
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• This extension of the basilica was undoubtedly
necessary from the point of view of practical
requirements, but it destroyed Michelangelo's great
conception and substituted something less impressive,
since the great dome can no longer be appreciated from
every point of view.
• As a result of these alterations, Maderno had to
design a facade which would not detract too much from
the dome and, at the same time, would be worthy of its
setting and also contain a central feature, the
Benediction Loggia, to provide a frame for the figure of
the pope when he appeared in public.
• These conflicting requirements were met as far as
possible by Maderno’s adaptation of a typical Roman
palace facade, with decorative motives taken from
Michelangelo's works.
•The plan to provide bell towers at the ends to enframe
the dome in distant views had to be abandoned because
the foundations gave trouble. The work, including the
decoration, was completed and consecrated on Nov. 18,
1626.

12. CARLO MADERNO’S FACADE
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• The façade designed by Maderno, is 114.69 metres (376.3 ft) wide and 45.55 metres (149.4 ft) high.
• It is built of travertine stone, with a giant order of Corinthian columns and a central pediment rising
in front of a tall attic surmounted by thirteen statues: Christ flanked by eleven of the Apostles
(except Peter, whose statue is left of the stairs) and John the Baptist.

13. THE EXTERIOR
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• The door in the centre was preserved from the old basilica. It was too small for its new space, so
panels were added at the top and bottom. Known as the Filarete Door it has six panels.
• The central balcony is called the Loggia of the Blessings
• The church was given an impressive setting by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, one of its architects.
• An avenue almost 1.5 kilometers long leads from the Tiber River to the Piazza Di San Pietro
(Square Of St. Peter), a large open space in front of the church.
• A red granite obelisk (shaft) stands 26 meters high in the piazza’s centre. It was brought to Rome
from Egypt about A.D. 37, and was moved to the piazza in 1586.
• The Piazza which was completed in 1667, contains two fountains and two colonnades (rows of
columns) arranged in semicircles on opposite sides of the Piazza.

14. THE EXTERIOR
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15. ST PETER’S BASILICA AND PIAZZA
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• Major axis of the piazza - 320 meters long Minor axis of the piazza - 240 meters wide
• Gian Lorenzo Bernini Colonnades & 140 Statues
• The Colonnades consist of 284 Doric columns and 88 pilasters of travertine marble.
• These columns, 13m. tall, are arranged in four rows.
• With the trabeation surmounted by a balustrade, the overall height is 21m.

16. ST PETER’S BASILICA
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17. DIMENSIONS
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• Length 220 metres (720 ft)
• Width 150 metres (490 ft)
• Height 136.6 metres (448 ft)
• Nave height 46.2 metres (152 ft)
• Dome diameter (outer) 42 metres (138 ft)
• Dome diameter (inner) 41.5 metres (136 ft)
• The surface area of St. Peter's is 163,182.2 sq. feet.

18. SECTION THROUGH BASILICA AND SQUARE
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19. THE INTERIORS
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• There is a barrel-vaulted nave, the highest of any church, leading to the central dome. The aisles are
lower and have a number of chapels off them. In interior, there are 45 altars
• The interior of the church is decorated in Baroque style. Bernini, who was also a sculptor, created
many of its famous features in the 1650s.He built the elaborate bronze Baldacchino (canopy) over
the main alter, which stands beneath the dome. It closes the extremely long sweep of the nave and
is 95 Ft. high.
• To the right and the left of the nave lie the smaller and lower aisles, the right of which is bordered by
four lateral chapels, the left by three chapels and the passage to the roof.
• The general decoration consists of colored marble incrustations, stucco figures, rich gilding, mosaic
decoration, and marble figures on the pilasters, ceiling, and walls.
• The paneling of the pavement in geometric figures is of colored marble after the designs of Giacomo
della Porta and Bernini.
• Beneath it is the Confession of St. Peter, where the body of the Prince of Apostles reposes – the
tomb of St. Peter’s.
• No chairs or pews obstruct the view; the eye roves freely over the glittering surface of the marble
pavement, where there is room for thousands of people.

20. THE INTERIORS
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21. DOME
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• The great double dome is made of brick and is 41.5 metres in interior diameter (almost as large as
the Pantheon), rising to 120 metres above the floor
• The four piers of the crossing support the dome

22. SISTENE CHAPEL BY MICHAELANGELO
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The Sistine Chapel is one of the chapels of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican City State, where the
pope's official residence is located. The ceiling was completed in 1512. Michaelangelo painted the Last
Judgement over the altar, between 1535 and 1541 on request of Pope Paul III Farnese. The ceiling is
40m long and shaped like a barrel.

23. SISTENE CHAPEL BY MICHAELANGELO
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24. SISTENE CHAPEL BY MICHAELANGELO
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25. ANDREA PALLADIO
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• Born in Padovain 1508.At age 15 went to Vicenzato became an assistant in a workshop of
stonecutters and masons
• Later introduced to the writings of Vitruvius, classical Roman architect.In 1548 he began receiving
commissions for country villas from prominent Venetians (Barbaro, Cornaro)
• Palladio designed a classical Roman theatre and many churches, villas and palaces mainly located in
Venice, Vicenza, Treviso and the surrounding areas. A number of his works are listed in the World
Heritage.
• The Palladian villas of the Veneto are villas designed by architect Andrea Palladio, all of whose
buildings were erected in the Veneto, the mainland region of north-eastern Italy then under the
political control of the Venetian Republic. Most villas are listed by UNESCO as part of a World
Heritage Site named City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto.

26. ANDREA PALLADIO’S WORKS
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I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura- Four
Books of Architecture, 1570
San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice,1566-1610 Il Redentore, 1577-1592
Villa Foscari "La Malcontenta", 1550–60
Villa Capra "La Rotonda“, 1552

27. Villa Capra "La Rotonda“, 1552
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Villa Capra "La Rotunda" is a Renaissance villa just outside Vicenza, northern Italy.The proper name is
Villa Almerico-Capra. It is also known as La Rotonda, Villa Rotunda, Villa La Rotonda, and Villa Almerico.

28. SECTION OF VILLA ROTUNDA
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29. DESIGN FEATURES
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• The site selected was a hilltop just outside the city of Vicenza. This sophisticated building was
designed for a site which was, in modern terminology, "suburban".
• The design is for a completely symmetrical building having a square plan with four facades, each of
which has a projecting portico. The whole is contained within an imaginary circle which touches
each corner of the building and centres of the porticos.
• The name La Rotonda refers to the central circular hall with its dome. To describe the villa, as a
whole, as a 'rotonda' is technically incorrect, as the building is not circular but rather the
intersection of a square with a cross.
• Each portico has steps leading up, and opens via a small cabinet or corridor to the circular domed
central hall
• The design reflected the humanist values of Renaissance architecture. In order for each room to
have some sun, the design was rotated 45 degrees from each cardinal point of the compass.
• Each of the four porticos has pediments graced by statues of classical deities .The pediments were
each supported by six ionic columns.

30. INTERIORS
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• The highlight of the interior is the central, circular hall, surrounded by a balcony and covered by
the domed ceiling; it soars the full height of the main house up to the cupola, with walls
decorated in trompe l'oeil. Abundant frescoes create an atmosphere that is more reminiscent of a
cathedral than the principal salon of a country house.
• Alessandro and Giovanni Battista Maganza and Anselmo Canera were commissioned to paint
frescoes in the principal salons.

31. EXTERIORS
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There are variations in the facades, in the width of steps, retaining walls, etc. In this way,
the symmetry of the architecture allows for the asymmetry of the landscape, and creates a
seemingly symmetrical whole. The landscape is a panoramic vision of trees and meadows
and woods, with the distant Vicenza on the horizon

32. Assignment
Write Short Notes on the following architects and their work:
• Raphael
• Michelangelo
• Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola – PALAZZO FARNESE
• Palladian Villas
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33. Thank You.
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