Dome

View of the southwest corner, rear of the church; "Around 1519 Sangallo entered the competition for the church of Giovanni de' Fiorentini in Rome, founded to celebrate the rebirth of Medici Florence and its close links with the papacy. Although the commission went to Sansovino, Antonio was consulted on technical problems relating to the foundations adjacent to the Tiber, and this gave him an opportunity to modify the designs, in which he compressed longitudinal and centralized ground-plans, and later to supplant Sansovino when the latter left Rome in 1527. In 1733-1735 Galilei was commissioned by Pope Clement XII to build the façade of S Giovanni dei Fiorentini. Deliberately drawing on 16th-century models, it is widely regarded as Galilei's weakest work in Rome." Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.groveart.com/ (accessed 1/20/2008)