Dome

Window over portal; The choice of Palladio was, in fact, especially significant because it sidelined Jacopo Sansovino, who had built the church thirty years earlier (and also prepared designs for its facade). Palladio thus became a tangible alternative, supported by the most culturally advanced section of the Venetian aristocracy, to the now ageing protagonist of the architectural renovation of Piazza San Marco. "He was engaged for further ecclesiastical works there, including a new facade (1562-ca. 1570) for S Francesco della Vigna. Here, he achieved a unified composition by employing a variety of scales, a technique he later adopted in the Palazzo Valmarana. At S Francesco della Vigna, the use of corresponding pediments over the nave and aisles allowed Palladio not only to resolve their difference in scale but also to make visible the hierarchy of the different parts with one architectural motif. This invention was to play a decisive part in the later church facades of S Giorgio Maggiore and Il Redentore, also in Venice." Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.groveart.com/ (accessed 1/25/2008)