Michelangelo designed the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica.
He became superintendent of the basilica’s building program in 1547, when he was already in his seventies. Earlier architects, especially Donato Bramante and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, had produced plans for the enormous church, but Michelangelo substantially redesigned the central dome and simplified the surrounding structure.
His concept used a double-shell brick dome raised on a tall drum and supported by massive piers. He also replaced Sangallo’s elaborate surrounding treatment with a more forceful ring of paired Corinthian columns. The dome’s distinctive upward sweep helped unify the basilica’s architecture from its lower walls to its lantern.
Michelangelo died in 1564, before the dome was finished. Giacomo della Porta and Domenico Fontana completed it in 1590, working from Michelangelo’s model but making modifications, including changes to the profile. Thus, Michelangelo designed the dome, but he did not personally complete the built structure. Bramante, Raphael, Maderno, and Bernini also contributed to different stages or features of the basilica.