Interior view

Whether or not all the surface decorations were designed by Bramante himself, the structure is composed, like the examples in Leonardo’s drawings, of permutations and combinations of geometric forms such as cubes, hemispheres, half-cylinders, and the like. Bramante transformed the oculi of the Gothic church into circles that are treated as ornament in the exterior decoration. In the interior, where apses curve onward around the dome, the circles are used to decorate the arches below the dome. The effect is bold, dramatic, and thoroughly Renaissance in its decorative motifs.

View the ground plan of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.