Bramante (1444–1514)

Italian High Renaissance architect and artist. Inspired by classical designs and by the work of Leonardo da Vinci, he was employed by Pope Julius II in rebuilding part of the Vatican and St Peter's in Rome. The circular Tempietto of San Pietro in Montorio, Rome (commissioned in 1502, built about 1510), is possibly his most important completed work. Though small in size, this circular colonnaded building possesses much of the grandeur of ancient Roman buildings.

Bramante was apprenticed to Fra Bartolommeo as a painter, and worked in Milan from about 1480 to 1499, when he moved to Rome. He first appeared as an architect in Milan in 1485. In that year he began the rebuilding of the Church of Santa Maria Presso San Satiro, and in 1492–97 built the apse, transept, crossing, and dome of Santa Maria delle Grazie. In Rome he designed not only the Tempietto, but also the cloister of Santa Maria della Pace (1500). He may have had some share in designing the Cancelleria Palace, finished in 1511.

His remodelling around 1504 of the rambling complex of buildings that formed the Vatican palace and the Belvedere was achieved by creating two long galleries enclosing a court. The design, however, was not finished before the death of either the Pope or Bramante himself. The foundations were defective, and much of the work had to be done again. He completed the designs for his work on St Peter's, and built the four great piers and their arches, besides the cornice and vaulting of this portion. After his death, however, his design was considerably altered.