Page:Character of Renaissance Architecture.djvu/75

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chap. iv
THE DOME OF ST. PETER'S
45

over the haunch, while in Figure 22 the drum is raised high above the encircling portico, and the vault is sprung from its top, and has no abutting rings. The architect appears to have realized that such a scheme would be unsafe on a large scale, for in the one which he prepared for the dome of St. Peter's he took care, as we shall see, to provide strong abutment.

Temple of Vesta, Tivoli, from Serlio, figure 21 from "Character of Renaissance Architecture"

Fig. 21.—Temple of Vesta, Tivoli, from Serlio.

The Tempietto is but a modified copy of an ancient model, and in no true sense an original design. The changes wrought by the copyist are not of a creative kind consistent with true principles of building. The pilasters, and the balustrade with which the order of the portico is crowned, are superfluous, and the work as a whole shows little of Bramante's real ability as an architect. Such merit as it has is primarily due to the ancient