Examine The Importance Of Architecture Of Bramante

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As the Italian courts of Milan, Naples, and Florence tussled over which was the most powerful, the Roman popes Julius II (1503-13) and Leo X (1513-21) offered hospitality to a group of artists from these leading principalities. The first significant arrival was that of Donato Bramante (c. 1444-1514), following his fruitful stay in Milan at the court of Ludovico il Moro, a rich cultural environment where he had made the acquaintance of such artists as Leonardo da Vinci and Luca Pacioli (c.1445-1517). In 1504, Julius II gave Bramante the task of organizing the reconstruction of the basilica of St Peter, which was to be centralized around a large cupola. Bramante had already adopted the design of a round sacred temple (tempietto) at San Pietro in Montorio (1502), which is a revival of the early Christian martyrium (church built in honour of a martyr). In 1506, the pope laid down the first stone of the new Vatican basilica and, in the same year, the antique sculpture known as Laocoon was discovered in a vineyard on the Esquiline hill. This depicted the myth of Laocoon, a Trojan priest who, with his two sons, was crushed to death by snakes. Such discoveries presented exciting new challenges for artists. The young Michelangelo had already grappled successfully with some of these in his sculptures of Bacchus (1497) and David (1501-04), and in certain ways with his Pieta (c.1498-1500). now in St Peter's. The draw of Rome was such that Florence found it hard to keep its most brilliant artists in the city, even though Leonardo's unfinished Battle qf'Anghiari briefly adorned the Council Chamber of the Republic in the Palazzo Vecchio. Michelangelo was commissioned to paint the Battle of Cascina on the opposite wall, but got no further than preparing a full-size cartoon for the project before being summoned to Rome bv Julius II in 1505. Donato also spelled Donino , or Donnino
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