Editing Renaissance architecture (section)

==== St. Peter's ====
The plan that was accepted at the laying of the foundation stone in 1506 was that by [[Bramante]]. Various changes in plan occurred in the series of architects that succeeded him, but Michelangelo, when he took over the project in 1546, reverted to Bramante's [[Cross-in-square|Greek-cross]] plan and redesigned the piers, the walls and the dome, giving the lower weight-bearing members massive proportions and eliminating the encircling aisles from the chancel and identical transept arms. [[Helen Gardner (art historian)|Helen Gardner]] says: "Michelangelo, with a few strokes of the pen, converted its snowflake complexity into a massive, cohesive unity."<ref name= "Gardner" />

Michelangelo's dome was a masterpiece of design using two masonry shells, one within the other and crowned by a massive [[roof lantern]] supported, as at Florence, on ribs. For the exterior of the building he designed a [[giant order]] which defines every external bay, the whole lot being held together by a wide cornice which runs unbroken like a rippling ribbon around the entire building.

There is a wooden model of the dome, showing its outer shell as hemispherical. When Michelangelo died in 1564, the building had reached the height of the drum. The architect who succeeded Michelangelo was [[Giacomo della Porta]]. The dome, as built, has a much steeper projection than the dome of the model. It is generally presumed that it was della Porta who made this change to the design, to lessen the outward thrust. But, in fact it is unknown who it was that made this change, and it is equally possible and a stylistic likelihood that the person who decided upon the more dynamic outline was Michelangelo himself at some time during the years that he supervised the project.{{NoteTag|Pevsner and Gardener suggest that Michelangelo began with the idea of a pointed dome, as in Florence, then in his old age reverted to the lower silhouette, and that della Porta stuck to Michelangelo's original concept. Mignacca, on the other hand, suggests that the pointed dome was Michelangelo's final, and brilliant, solution to the apparent visual tension within the building.}}

[[File:Biblioteca medicea laurenziana, vestibolo e scala di michelangelo, 07.jpg|thumb|left|The vestibule of the Laurentian Library]]