Bases and flights of steps, rich and varied in design, which unite the higher to the lower levels of the building, all from the plans of Bramante, and admirably executed in the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders resjDectively, arranged with the most perfect grace. He had made a model of all that was to have been done, which is said to have been of most imposing beauty, as indeed we may see that it must have been from the commencement of the work; even left as it is in the imperfect state wherein we see it. Among other things is a winding stair constructed between columns, which is graduated in such a manner that it can be ascended on horseback: in this work the Doric order is followed by the Ionic, and the Ionic by the Corinthian, thus rising from one order into the other; the whole is conducted with the utmost judgment and finished with exquisite grace, insomuch that it does him equal honour with whatever other work he may have executed in the same place.[1] The invention of this winding stair Bramante borrowed from San Niccolo of Pisa, as we have notified in the life of Giovanni and Niccolo Pisani.[2]
This master had formed the fanciful project of making certain letters, in the manner of the ancient hieroglyphics, on a frieze of the external façade, whereby he designed to display his own ingenuity, as well as to exhibit the name of the reigning Pontiff* and his own, and had commenced thus: —Julio II. Pont. Maximo, having caused a head in profile of Julius Cmsar to be made, by way of expressing the name of the pontiff, and constructing a bridge with two arches to intimate Julio II. Pont., with an Obelisk of the Circus Maximus to signify Max. But the Pope laughed at this fancy and made him change his hieroglyphics for letters a braccio in height, in the antique form, such as we now see them; declaring that Bramante had borrowed that absurdity from a gate in Viterbo, over which a certain architect, called Maestro Francesco, had placed his name after his own fashion, and that he effected it on this wise: he carved a figure of San Francesco with an arch (arco), a roof {tetto), and a tower (torre), which he explained in a way of his own to mean. Maestro Francesco Architettore.
