RENAISSANCE AND MANNERISM C. I42O-C. I6OO

the dome over the Tempietto. Four corner turrets (of Milanese
origin) are added to finish the diagonal axes and complete the ex-
terior into a square with projections only for the main apses. So far
Bramante's scheme was not more than a magnificent development
of 15th-century ideas. What is new and entirely of the i6th century

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J-H-H I i i i i I i i M 11 M I I J>e e t
56. DONATO BRAMANTE: ORIGINAL PLAN FOR ST. PETER'S IN ROME, 1506,
is the modelling of the walls and above all the piers supporting the
central dome, the only parts of Bramante's plan that were executed
and still stand. In them nothing is left of the human scale and gentle
modelling of Early Renaissance members. They are massive pieces
of masonry, boldly hollowed out as if by the sculptor's moulding
hand. This conception of the plastic potentialities of a wall, in its
origin Late Roman, and first rediscovered (though less massively
98