Bramante

Bramante, Donato Lazzari, architect, born in 1444 at Casteldurante in Urbino. He first studied painting, and though successful in this sphere abandoned it for architecture. About 1500 he went to Rome, where he was employed by Popes Alexander VI. and Julius II., for the latter of whom he planned the buildings connecting the Vatican with the Belvedere and designed the new church of St. Peter at Rome. He laid the foundation stone of St. Peter's in 1506, but did not live to see its completion, which was entrusted to Michael Angelo, who departed widely from his designs. He died in 1514 at Rome.