Tempietto del Bramante

The Tempietto del Bramante is a martyrium designed by Donato Bramante to commemorate the site traditionally regarded as the location of Saint Peter’s crucifixion. The small, freestanding chapel was commissioned by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile and was completed c. 1502 for the cloister of San Pietro in Montorio in Rome, Italy. The structure is considered a masterpiece of High Renaissance architecture, with scholars and architects noting Bramante’s harmonious proportions and his symbolic adaptation of Classical and early Christian architectural elements. History After spending his first years in Milan, Bramante moved to Rome, where he was recognized by Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, the soon-to-be Pope Julius II. In Rome, Bramante was able to study the ancient monuments firsthand. The temple of Vesta at Tivoli was one of the precedents behind the Tempietto. Other antique precedents Bramante was able to study in Rome include the circular temple of the banks of the Tiber, Temple of Hercules Victor, believed at the time to be a temple of Vesta. However, circular churches had already been employed by early Christians for martyriums, like Santa Costanza, also in Rome. Bramante would have been aware of these early Christian precedents, and as a result, the Tempietto is circular. Description The temple was constructed from bearing masonry. The circular temple supports a classical entablature, and was framed in the shadowy arch of the cloister. It is the earliest example of the Tuscan order in the Renaissance. The Tuscan is a form of the Doric order, well suited for strong male gods (such as Hercules) so Tuscan was well suited for St. Peter's. It is meant to mark the traditional exact spot of St. Peter's martyrdom, and is an important precursor to Bramante's rebuilding of St. Peter's. The building reflected Brunelleschi's style. It is composed of slender Tuscan columns, a Doric entablature modeled after the ancient Theatre of Marcellus, and a dome. Bramante planned to surround the building with concentric rings of colonnades, the columns of which would have been radially aligned to those of the Tempietto, but this plan was never executed. References Further reading In English Brandolini, Sebastiano. "Bramante's Tempietto: Concept and Representation." AA Files 1 (Winter 1981/82): 77-83. Bruschi, Arnaldo. Bramante. Thames and Hudson, 1977. Davies, Paul. "Framing the Miraculous: The Devotional Functions of Perspective in Italian Renaissance Tabernacle Design." Art History 36, no. 5 (November 2013): 898-921. Freiberg, Jack. Bramante's Tempietto, the Roman Renaissance, and the Spanish Crown. Cambridge University Press, 2014. Howard, Deborah. "Bramante's Tempietto: Spanish Royal Patronage in Rome." Apollo 136 (1992). Jones, Mark Wilson. "The Tempietto and the Roots of Coincidence." Architectural History 33 (1990): 1-38. Pestilli, Livio. "On 'The Cruxifix of St. Peter' relief in Bramante's Tempietto." Artibus et Historiae 38, no. 75 (2017): 97-125. Rosenthal, Earl. "The Antecedents of Bramante's Tempietto." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 23, no. 2 (May, 1964): 55-74. Rowland, Ingrid. "Bramante's Hetruscan Tempietto." Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 51/52 (2006/7): 225-238. Verdon, Timothy. "Bramante and early Christian spatial articulation." Arte Lombardia 86/87 (1988): 180-186. In Italian Borsi, Franco. Bramante. Electa, 1989. Cantatore, Flavia (ed.). Il tempietto di Bramante nel monastero di San Pietro in Montorio. Edizioni Quasar, 2017. Cipriani, Luigi. S. Pietro in Montorio & il Tempietto del Bramante: studio storico-giuridico. Pro manuscripto, 1986. Frommel, Christoph Luitpold. "Bramante, il Tempietto e il convento di San Pietro in Montorio." Romisches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana 41 (2013/14): 111-164. Salerno, Carlo Stefano and Caterina Volpi. "Il Tempietto del Bramante." In La Spagna sul Gianicolo. Volume I: San Pietro in Montorio, edited by Alessandro Zuccari, 57-91. Eurografica Editore, 2004. Thoenes, Christof. "Il Tempietto di Bramante e la costruzione della 'dorico genere aedis sacrae.'" In Per Franco Barbieri: studi di storia dell'arte e dell'architettura, edited by Maria Elisa Avagnina and Guido Beltramini, 435-448. Marsilio, 2004. Vanicelli, Primo Luigi. S. Pietro in Montorio e il tempietto del Bramante. 1971. In German Förster, Otto H. Bramante. Verlag Anton Schroll & Co., 1956. Günther, Hubertus. "Das komplizierte Ebenmaß der Renaissance-Architektur: die Proportionen von Bramantes Tempietto über dem Kreuzigungsort Petri und die Rekonstruktion des Hofprojekts." Architectura: Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Baukunst 32 (2001): 149-166. Peschken, Goerd. "Bramantes Tempietto und sein runder Zreuzgang." In Les mots de la tribu für Gerhard Goebel, edited by Thomas Amos, 73-81. Stauffen-Verlag, 2000. Riegel, Nichole. "San Pietro in Montorio in Rom: Die Votivkirche der katholischen Könige Isabella und Ferdinand von Spanien." Römisches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana 32 (1997/98): 275-320. Schuller, Manfred, et al. "Der Tempietto: Ergebnisse der Bauforschung." Römisches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana 41 (2013/14): 165-207. External links "El Templete de Bramante." Real Academia de España en Roma. (In Spanish) Davies Paul and David Hemsoll. "Codex Coner: Architecture and Antiquarianism in early sixteenth-century Rome, c.1513-15 with seventeenth-century additions (100 folios)" Sir John Soane's Museum Collection Online. Accessed 25 November 2025. (f. 12v., f. 21r., f. 22r., f. 40r.)