The Textbook of Architecture

The Cabinet of Models

Bramante’s Tempietto

San Pietro in Montorio, Rome: a circular Doric peristyle of sixteen columns on steps, a balustrade, a drum and a hemispherical dome.

Bramante’s Tempietto Open in Models ↗

Illustrates: Renaissance

The rules it illustrates

The round temple and its hemisphere. Set the columns of a round temple on a circle over a stepped base, carry the entablature round the circle, and cover the cella with a dome whose height is half the diameter of the whole.

The centrally planned church. Where the purpose allows, plan the church about a single centre (a circle, a square or a Greek cross) so that every part stands in the same relation to the middle, under a dome.

Where it appears in the book

In the styles Renaissance.

In the chapters Renaissance and Baroque.