Donato Bramante

Donato Bramante (1444-1514) was an Italian architect, born in Fermignano near Urbino, who trained as a painter. From about 1476 to 1499 he worked in Milan for Duke Ludovico Sforza, then moved to Rome after French forces drove the Sforza out. Pope Julius II chose his design for a new St. Peter's Basilica, and the foundation stone was laid in April 1506.

At Santa Maria presso San Satiro in Milan (1482-1486) a street behind the church left no room for a choir, so he built a false apse in shallow relief that appears in perspective to be much deeper. He also built the domed east end of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan (1492-1499). In Rome his Tempietto (1502), in the courtyard of San Pietro in Montorio, marks the place where Saint Peter was traditionally said to have been crucified. It is a small round chapel under a dome, surrounded by a ring of Doric columns (the plainest Greek column type).

His plan for St. Peter's was a Greek cross, with four equal arms, under a central dome. In the early 17th century Carlo Maderno lengthened it with a nave. In the Vatican Bramante designed the Cortile del Belvedere (begun 1505), a long terraced courtyard joining the papal palace to the Villa Belvedere, and he built the cloister of Santa Maria della Pace (1500-1504).