905 



BRAMANTE, D'URBINO. 



BRAMHALL, JOHN. 



906 



his career is evinced by many pictures which he executed, and which 

 are still to be se^n at Milan ; but his predilection for architecture pre- 

 vailed over all other consideration?, and he abandoned for that art the 

 one where he had already a fair prospect of success before him. 



At first he travelled through Lombardy, and passed some time at 

 Milan, studying the works and construction of the celebrated duomo 

 in that city, which was the most extraordinary work of architecture 

 then in progress. He next proceeded to Rome, where after painting 

 some frescoes (now destroyed) in the church of St. John Lateran, he 

 determined to apply himself exclusively to investigating and measuring 

 the principal ancient edifices in that metropolis and its environs. He 

 soon became completely engrossed by his new pursuits, being inces- 

 lautly occupied in making drawings, studies, and measurements of 

 various works of antiquity. Among other edifices which he explored 

 were the ruins of that prodigious pile, or rather collection of buildings, 

 the Villa Adriana, which, not having been then despoiled of the 

 columns, marbles, and other ornaments since carried off, must have 

 been far more instructive to the architect than at present, when its 

 scanty remains are interesting only to the antiquary. Unfortunately, 

 Bratnante's zeal and admiration do not appear to have been regulated 

 by that discriminating taste which shows that it appreciates real 

 beauties by rejecting all spurious alloy. Amplitude of- masses and 

 vaatness of plan seems to have struck the imagination of the future 

 projector of St. Peter's quite as forcibly as that architectural dignity 

 which is independent of extraordinary dimensions, arising rather from 

 nobleness and greatness of manner consistently kept up throughout. 



After extending his researches as far as Naples, upon his return to 

 Rome he was commissioned by Cardinal Oliviero CarafFa to erect the 

 cloister of tha convent Delia Pace : which, although not a work of 

 any particular merit for its design, gave such satisfaction as to bring 

 him t once into notice, and obtain for him the patronage of Alex- 

 ander VI. Under that pope however he did not execute any public 

 works of importance, with the exception of the Cancelleria or palace 

 of the chancery ; a pile of imposing magnitude, and remarkable for 

 its spacious ' cortile,' surrounded by open galleries formed by ranges 

 of arches resting upon granite columns. Although such a combina- 

 tion of the column and arch constitutes in itself a mixed style, as it 

 was here managed by Bramante it is at least froe from absurdity. In 

 the facade of the same building, which has two orders of pilasters 

 above a lofty rusticated basement, he was not so happy ; and he either 

 did not aim at the character of the antique, or else failed in his 

 attempt. In proportion to the building the orders are too minute to 

 assist the idea of magnitude otherwise than at the expense of their 

 own importance. There la magnitude in the general mass, but not in 

 the constituent features. The arrangement of the pilasters again is 

 more unusual than agreeable, for they cannot be said to be coupled, 

 but distributed so aa to form wider and narrower intercolumns 

 alternately : in the former are placed the windows, while the others 

 are left blank a mode which, without possessing the richness of 

 coupled columns or pilasters, is equally if not still more objection- 

 able. Another circumstance which does not contribute greatly to 

 beauty is, that the windows of the principal floor as well as those of 

 the basement are arched, although crowned by a horizontal cornice, 

 owing to which they have a heavy look in themselves, and also appear 

 squat and depressed in comparison with the range above them. 

 Nearly the same peculiarities, which may be taken as in some degree 

 characteristic of Bramante's style in buildings of this class, prevail 

 also in the facade of a palace begun, although not finished by him, in 

 the street called Via Borgo Nuovo. This mansion, now called the 

 Palazzo Giraud, has like the Cancelleria two orders of pilasters, form- 

 ing narrow and wide intercolumns alternately, and arched windows to 

 the first order, crowned by a horizontal frieze and cornice, but with 

 these differences, that the lesser intercolumns are narrower than in 

 the other instance, although still of too great width to allow the 

 pilasters to be termed ' coupled ; ' and the arched windows are there 

 wid- r and loftier than the others. 



The elevation of Julius II. to the pontificate was a fortunate cir- 

 cumstance for Bramante ; for that pope, who was no less enterprising 

 and resolute in civil than he was in military undertakings, was 

 ambitious of signalising his reign by some noble monuments of archi- 

 tecture and the other arts. By him Bramante was commissioned to 

 project plans for uniting the Belvedere with the buildings of the old 

 Vatican palace, so as to render the whole au imposing mass. The 

 architect accordingly proposed to connect the two edifices by means 

 of long wings or galleries, between which should be a court. On 

 account of the inequality of the ground, this latter was formed on 

 two levels, with nights of steps leading up to the large niche or tribune 

 of the Belvedere. The design of this tribune, within which were five 

 lesser niches containing the group of the Laocoon and other master- 

 pieces of sculpture, may be seen (very rudely expressed) in Serlio's 

 work on architecture. This grand composition, which however was 

 not completed by Bramante himself, has since his time undergone so 

 many extensive changes, that it is impossible now to judge from the 

 place what it originally was ; for the court has been divided into two 

 by a range of buildings across ih, at the junction of its two levels, 

 which was erected by Sixtus V. for the Vatican library. 



Complying with both tlie pope's impatience and his own, Bramante 

 carried on the works at the Vatican with all possible despatch, by 



night as well as day, in consequence of which precipitation many 

 fissures afterwards discovered themselves. To reward the zeal and 

 assiduity of his favourite architect, Julius conferred on him the office 

 called ' del Piombo,' took him along with him in his military expe- 

 ditions as his chief engineer, and otherwise manifested the confidence 

 he placed in him. The credit he was in with the pope enabled him 

 in time to patronise others, and he enjoys the honour of having been 

 the first to recommend Raphael at the papal court ; yet he has also 

 been accused of availing himself of his interest with Julius for the 

 purpose of thwarting the views of Michel Angelo. Certain it is that 

 he persuaded the pope to abandon the idea of the vast mausoleum 

 which was to have been ornamented with forty statues by that artist, 

 some of them of colossal size. 



But he could have had no very particular reason to be dissatisfied 

 with the scheme of the mausoleum, because it was in order to provide 

 a suitable situation for it that Julius determined upon taking down 

 the old basilica of St. Peter, and erecting a new edifice, as had been 

 intended by Nicholas V., who had actually commenced the end tribune 

 or semicircle, which was chosen by Michel Angelo as the most fitting 

 place for the mausoleum. Such was the origin of the present structure, 

 called by Vasari ' la stupenda e terribilissima fabrica di San Pietro.' 

 Giuliano di Sangallo was employed to make designs as well as Bra- 

 mante, but those of the latter obtained the preference, and Saugallo 

 felt so indignant that he retired to Florence. Bramante commenced 

 his work in 1513, and such was the expedition with which he pro- 

 ceeded, that the four great piers and their arches were completed 

 before his death in the following year. On this occasion he had 

 recourse to a new mode of ' executing the ornaments of the soffits of 

 the arches, by means of moulds fixed into the centerings of the 

 arches, which were filled up with stucco and brickwork before the 

 arches themselves were turned, a mode supposed to have been prac- 

 tised by the ancients, although quite gone out of use until again 

 appUed by Bramante. As his labours extended no further, and as the 

 subsequent mutations introduced by Michel Angelo and his successors 

 were such that the original design was entirely lost sight of, the 

 present edifice can in nowise be considered the work of Bramante. 

 On the contrary, there is reason to imagine that it would have been 

 a much nobler piece of architecture had his ideas been adhered to ; 

 and perhaps one of even still greater magnitude. As the model was 

 not completed, we can only judge of his general intentions from the 

 plan composed according to them by Raphael, which is given by Serlio 

 in his work, and certainly, as far as plan alone goes, this appears far 

 better conceived than the one actually executed, and superior in 

 perspective effect, inasmuch as there would have been a greater 

 number of arcades along the nave, and an uninterrupted vista in each 

 of the side aisles to the very extremity of the building; besides which 

 there would have been a spacious prostyle portico in front, the entire 

 width of the church, formed by three ranks of insulated columns. 

 Further it has been observed, that instead of appearing less than its 

 actual dimensions, as is notoriously the case with the present St. 

 Peter's, which even excites astonishment on that very account, it 

 would have looked more spacious and extensive than it really was. 

 The form of the Dome too, as proposed by Bramante, would have 

 been more simple and more after the character of the antique, it being 

 much less than a hemisphere externally, with a series of gradini similar 

 to those of the Pantheon at its base, above the peristyle of its tam- 

 bour ; and it may hero be observed, that it was Bramante, not 

 Michel Augelo, who first projected the idea of surmounting St. Peter's 

 by a rotunda and dome equal to the Pantheon. Another celebrated 

 work of Bramante, although upon an exceedingly small scale, is the 

 little Temple or Oratory in the cloister of San Pietro Montorio at 

 Home. It is circular in plan, and surrounded externally by a peri- 

 style of sixteen Doric columns, above which rise the walls of the cella, 

 forming a disproportionably lofty attic, with windows and niches 

 placed alternately; this circumstance, together with the number of 

 doors, windows, and niches, gives the whole a heavy and confused 

 appearance, quite unlike the finished simplicity observable in the best 

 antique models. Besides all which there is a particularly uncouth 

 balustrade above the entablature of the peristyle, whose balusters are 

 continued the whole circumference, without any intervening pedestals. 

 At th i best it is a more showy than beautiful architectural object ; 

 yet would have produced a good general effect, had the circular court 

 with a surrounding colonnade, for the centre of which it was intended, 

 been completed according to the architect's design. 



Numerous other buildings and projects are attributed to Bramante, 

 but to some of them his claims are rather disputable, and of the 

 edfices known to have been erected by him many no longer exist. 

 He died at Rome in 1514, at the age of seventy, and his remains were 

 interred with unusual solemnity. 



BRAMHALL, JOHN, Archbishop of Armagh, in the 17th century, 

 was born at Pontefract, in Yorkshire, about the year 1593, and was 

 descended from an ancient family. He received his early education 

 in the place of his birth, and was then sent to Sidney College, Cam- 

 bridge, where he was admitted February 21st, 1608. In 1623 the 

 Archliishop of York made him his chaplain. He was also pre- 

 bendary of York and Ripon. In 1630 he took the degree of Doctor in 

 Divinity. Soon after he was invited to Ireland by Viscount Wentworth, 

 deputy of that kingdom, and Sir Christopher Wandesford, master of 



