Domes built in the 16th century by the Western world, broadly defined, relied primarily on empirical techniques and oral traditions rather than the architectural treatises of the time. The use of lantern towers, or timburios, which hid dome profiles on the exterior declined in Italy as the use of windowed drums beneath domes increased, which introduced new structural difficulties.
Multi-story spires with truncated bulbous cupolas supporting smaller cupolas or crowns were used at the top of important 16th-century spires, beginning in the Netherlands. In the early sixteenth century, the lantern of the Italian dome had spread north and this structure gradually adopted the bulbous cupola from the Netherlands. The fully developed onion dome was prominent in Prague by the middle of the sixteenth century and appeared widely on royal residences. Russian architecture strongly influenced the many bulbous domes of the wooden churches of Bohemia and Silesia. Bulbous domes in Bavarian rural architecture less resemble Dutch models than Russian ones, due to influence through Bohemia and Silesia.
The Gothic ribbed vault was displaced with a combination of dome and barrel vaults in the Renaissance style throughout the 16th century, beginning with the areas of Italy within Florence's sphere of influence and with Bramante's 1505–6 projects for a wholly new St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The spread of domes in this style outside of Italy began with central Europe, although there was often a stylistic delay of a century or two. Use of the oval dome spread quickly through Italy, Spain, France, and central Europe and would become characteristic of Counter-Reformation architecture in the Baroque style.
A more somber style was implemented following the reforms of the Council of Trent. The extradosed domes of El Escorial became a model for subsequent Spanish domes. Only a few examples of domed churches from the 16th century survive from the Spanish colonization of Mexico. Surviving examples are typically on a Latin cross plan with a brick dome on a drum at the crossing. Early domes were commonly hemispherical and low, springing from the level of the roofline, rather than using an intervening drum.
Developments
A combination of barrel vaults, pendentives, drum, and dome developed as the characteristic structural forms of large Renaissance churches following a period of innovation in the later fifteenth century. Florence was the first Italian city to develop the new style, followed by Rome, and then Venice. Domes in the Renaissance style in Florence are mostly from the early period, in the fifteenth century. Cities within Florence's zone of influence, such as Genoa, Milan, and Turin, mainly produced examples later, from the sixteenth century on.
The construction of domes in the sixteenth century relied primarily on empirical techniques and oral traditions rather than the architectural treatises of the times, which avoided practical details. This was adequate for domes up to medium size, with diameters in the range of 12 to 20 meters. Materials were considered homogeneous and rigid, with compression taken into account and elasticity ignored. The weight of materials and the size of the dome were the key references. Lateral tensions in a dome were counteracted with horizontal rings of iron, stone, or wood incorporated into the structure. Other techniques used to reduce lateral thrust were to add a buttress at the base, a counterweight above the abutment, or to give the vault a steeper profile. Architects followed authoritative opinions, especially those of ancient authors, and the evidence from ancient and contemporary buildings. The structural behavior of previous domed buildings acted as full-scale models to inform new ones and small scale models of new projects were also relied upon.
Dome design prior to the seventeenth century relied upon geometrical and proportional construction rules established by the experiences of prior centuries. Principles based on material strengths, the theory of elasticity, and limit analysis had not yet been formulated. Traditional geometric rules of proportion for domes were applied by master builders regardless of size, but helped new domes be built in forms known to be safe. Sizing of domes was determined geometrically through ratios of the diameter to other aspects, such as thickness, lantern size, and drum size, until it was replaced by analytical calculations at the end of the seventeenth century.
Onion-shaped domes appeared widely on royal residences in the middle of the sixteenth century. In addition to those on the eastern part of Prague Castle, royal residences in Madrid, London, Vienna, and Kraków had them, always as part of Italian classical forms.
The first rotating observatory dome was built in the sixteenth century, in Kassel.
Toward the end of the sixteenth century, transepts with domes were popular in several Italian states and were featured in prominent churches such as the Abbey of Santa Giustina in Padua (begun in 1532), Mantua Cathedral (added after 1540), Church of the Gesù in Rome (1568–1580), and San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice (begun in 1566). The domes of the Abbey of Santa Giustina in Padua may have been inspired by those of il Santo. Between the late sixteenth and mid-seventeenth centuries, the use of iron chains was considered critical in achieving structural equilibrium for dome construction in the area around Rome, with rare exceptions. Other contemporary architects, such as those in Florence, argued that dome stability should instead be ensured by the use of correct proportions and good construction.
In the sixteenth century, many Renaissance and Baroque elliptical and oval plan domes were built over rectangular naves, using brick in Italy and stone in Spain. Later German oval domes in the Rococo style used different combinations of geometry. Elliptical dome traces were published by Durero (1525), Serlio (1545), and De L'Orme (1561) along with practical methods of achieving the shape using circular arcs, the technique used from the time of the ancient Romans. The publication of Sebastiano Serlio's treatise, one of the most popular architectural treatises ever published, was responsible for the spread of the oval in late Renaissance and Baroque architecture. Book I (1545), on geometry, included techniques to create ovals, and Book V (1547), on architecture, included a design for an oval church. Churches with oval plans begin to be built in the middle of the sixteenth century. Churches with oval domes allowed for a synthesis of the two fundamental church types, longitudinal and central plan, and would become characteristic of Baroque architecture and the Counter-Reformation. published a description of the geometry of oval domes around 1580 with orthogonal projections of meridian and parallel rib curves. Oval domes often incorporated both elliptical and oval or semicircular curves and this ambiguity is reflected in the architectural literature. Builders relied on graphical or empirical solutions to such geometric problems.
Papal States
The Tempietto in Rome, a small domed building modelled on the Temple of Vesta, was built in 1502 by Bramante in the cloister of San Pietro in Montorio to commemorate the site of St. Peter's martyrdom. It has inspired numerous copies and adaptations since, including Radcliffe Camera, the mausoleum at Castle Howard, and the domes of St. Peter's Basilica, St Paul's Cathedral, the Panthéon, and the U.S. Capitol.
Bramante's 1505–6 projects for a wholly new St. Peter's Basilica mark the beginning of the displacement of the Gothic ribbed vault with the combination of dome and barrel vault, which proceeded throughout the sixteenth century. Bramante's studies for new church designs for St. Peter's coincided with Leonardo da Vinci's studies of centrally planned churches while they were both at the court of Ludovico Sforza in Milan and they may have collaborated. Their studies may have influenced many of the centrally planned churches built in the first half of the sixteenth century, such as the church of Santa Maria della Consolazione (started around 1508) and the church of the Madonna di San Biagio at Montepulciano (1518–1545). Bramante's cross-domed design for the church of St. Celso in Rome served as a model for the Church of St. Maria della Fortezze in Viterbo, begun in 1514. Although Bramante designed a low dome like that of the Pantheon for the church of Santa Maria della Consolazione in Todi, a building ordered by the ruling Atti family to mark the site of a 1508 miracle, the design changed in 1587 to a dome and drum on pendentives.
Raphael's dome in the Chigi Chapel (1516) at the basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo use stucco relief moldings to frame eight picture panels surrounding a central circular image. The eight panels depict angels and figures representing the planets. The central panel depicts an illusionistic Pantocrator mosaic, with a perspective intended to be seen from the entrance arch.
In 1520, Antonio da Correggio painted the oval crossing dome of San Giovanni Evangelista in Parma, using an illusionistic style that depicts a central Christ, but in a scene of the second coming, rather than as Pantocrator. The low lighting required the painting to use a "fresco technique with a far stronger tonal range than is normal for the medium." In 1526 he painted the octagonal crossing dome of Parma Cathedral with an illusionistic depiction of the assumption of Mary, with plaster filling in the angles of the octagonal vault to create a smooth surface. The image is meant to be viewed at or near the base of the steps to the chancel.
The church of Santa Maria di Loreto in Rome (1507-1585) has a dome in two shells. The inner shell was built by Antonio Sangallo with the rest of the church, but the outer shell was added later by Giacomo del Duca and finished in 1577. A false lantern was added above this second shell in 1585.
The (begun 1513) by was a cross-domed church that followed the Venetian model. Alessio Tramello helped develop a Lombard variant of the cross-domed plan in which the cross arms extend past the otherwise square plan with his church of Santa Maria di Campagna in Piacenza (1522–1528).
The first church with an oval dome in the Renaissance period was the Sant'Andrea in Via Flaminia, built from 1550 to 1554 by Vignola. Use of the oval dome subsequently spread quickly through Italy, Spain, France, and central Europe. The church of Sant'Anna dei Palafrenieri (c. 1568–1575), designed by Vignola and completed by his son Giacinto Barozzi, was the first church to have an oval dome over an oval plan.
Many Italian examples of oval domes have semi-circular cross sections, which allowed for easier construction using semi-circular transverse centering. Vignola's oval plan church of Sant'Anna dei Palafrenieri was the first to be built within Rome, and was designed in 1572 with seven windows between the eight ribs in its oval dome. The windows introduced structural complications that Vignola had avoided in his first oval dome over the rectangular plan church of Sant'Andrea in Via Flaminia, but the restrictions of the site necessitated light from above. The oval plan church of San Giacomo degli Incurabili was started in 1592 by a student of Vignola's, Francesco Capriani, and finished by Carlo Maderno. It also has ribs between the six windows in its dome, but they are concealed on the interior. The design of this church would inspire others over the next two centuries, aided by the building activity of the many new religious orders founded between 1524 and 1621.
St. Peter's Basilica