Chapter V: Church Architecture of the Roman Renaissance

Other parts of the church of St. Peter--Beauty of its
plan--This plan could not be carried out with a good result in
classic Roman details--Awkward makeshifts to which Michael
Angelo was led--The colossal order of the interior--The
magnitude of the structural parts of the church unavoidable--The
real character of the building contradicted by the external
order--Makeshifts which this order necessitated--The real
character of St. Peter’s has been rarely analyzed--Its grandeur
due to its magnitude and to what it derives from the design of
Bramante--Its incongruity and extravagance--Use of stucco in
the ornamentation of the interior--Extravagant laudation of the
building by the earlier Italian writers--Antonio San Gallo’s
project for St. Peter’s--Earlier examples of Roman Renaissance
church architecture--Sant’ Agostino a mediæval building with
Renaissance details--Its façade--Santa Maria della Consolazione
at Todi--Its attribution to Bramante--Irrational treatment of
its interior--Merit of the exterior in its larger features--San
Biagio at Montepulciano--The order of the interior--The
Renaissance use of a pilaster coupled with a column on the corner
of a building--Roman treatment of the corner--Instance of the use
of a corner pilaster described by Serlio--The exterior of San
Biagio--Its campanile and lantern--The evolution of this form of
tower--System of Santissima Annunziatta at Arezzo--Vignola, and
Milizia’s remarks on him--His book of architecture--His advocacy
of ancient Roman art and his disregard in practice of its
principles--His design for Sant’ Andrea di Ponte Molle--Its
derivation from the Pantheon--Vignola’s design for the church of
Santa Maria degli Angeli at Assisi--His design for the Gesù at
Rome--Aberrations of design in this work--The façade by Della
Porta--Palladio, and his great influence on modern art--His
book of architecture--His design for the church of San Giorgio
Maggiore at Venice--The Redentore and San Francesco della
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