St. Peter's Basilica Analysis

Though Michelangelo wasn’t the only artist who worked on St. Peter’s Basilica, his work is probably the most well known. Not only did he design the domed ceiling of the church, but he also helped to repair the poorly constructed piers which were so vital to the structure of the monument. The Piers are what hold up the drum, which is the main base for the cupola (the domed part) and the lantern (the very top). The original designer of the church, Donato Bramante, was told by Michelangelo that his workmen were “not properly mixing the materials for the piers” (engineeringrome.wikispaces.com). On top of that they only used cement to fix the walls, making it structurally unsound. After Bramante died, a profuse amount of cracks were found in the walls and piers, both of which Michelangelo reinforced using concrete. This stabilized the piers, so that they wouldn’t crumble under the immense weight of the rest of the ceiling. However his most famous contribution to the church is perhaps the architectural ingenuity of the beautiful elliptical dome that crowns St. Peter’s Basilica. Though it wasn’t finished until after the great artist died, it was his plan that was used to build the great ceiling. His plan consisted of a double shell which would be more visible and offered better protection from the
Some of these imitations have made themselves present in other historic cathedrals, such as the Sant'Andrea della Valle in Rome, the Pantheon in Paris, and the St. Mary of the Angels in Chicago, Illinois just to name a few. Even though many other architects contributed greatly to the building of the great Basilica, the contribution that Michelangelo made is perhaps the most influential. Considering the fact that it was his designs of the domed ceiling that has been replicated the most in other