Interior view

Although no document connects Bramante’s name with the present apse, transept, crossing and dome, they are attributed to him under the influence of Leonardo da Vinci, whose ideas on radial architecture they reflect. 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.

The numerous oculi in the pre-existing church and in the new apses are echoed by the large painted roundels that adorn the arches and by the laced circles between the ribs of the dome.The monochromatic sgraffito decoration on the walls respects Dominican commitment to austerity. The effect is one of luminous expansiveness.