f various
flights of steps, to ascend to the level of the Belvedere. Whereupon
Bramante, who had very good judgment and an inventive genius in such
matters, distributed two ranges of columns along the lowest part;
first, a very beautiful Doric loggia, similar to the Colosseum of
the Savelli (although, in place of half-columns, he used pilasters),
and all built of travertine; and over this a second range of the
Ionic Order, full of windows, of such a height as to come to the
level of the first-floor rooms of the Papal Palace, and to the
level of those of the Belvedere; intending to make, afterwards, a
loggia more than four hundred paces long on the side towards Rome,
and likewise another on the side towards the wood, with which, one
on either hand, he proposed to enclose the valley; into which, after
it had been levelled, was to be brought all the water from the
Belvedere; and for this a very beautiful fountain was to be made. Of
this design, Bramante finished the first corridor, which issues from
the Palace and leads to the Belvedere on the side towards Rome,
except the upper loggia, which was to go above it. As for the
opposite part, on the side towards the wood, the foundations,
indeed, were laid, but it could not be finished, being interrupted
by the death of Julius, and then by that of Bramante. His design was
held to be so beautiful in invention, that it was believed that from
the time of the ancients until that day, Rome had seen nothing
better. But of the other corridor, as has been said, he left only
the foundations, and the labour of finishing it has dragged on down
to our own day, when Pius IV has brought it almost to completion.

Bramante also erected the head-wall of the Museum of ancient statues
in the Belvedere, together with the range of niches; wherein were
placed, in his lifetime, the Laocoon, one of the rarest of ancient
statues, the Apollo, and the Venus; and the rest of the statues were
set up there afterwards by Leo X, such as the Tiber, the Nile, and
the Cleopatra, with some others added by Clement VII; and in the
time of Paul III and Julius III many important improvements were
made, at great expense.

But to return to Bramante; he was very resolute, although he was
hindered by the avarice of those who supplied him with the means to
work, and he had a marvellous knowledge of the craft of building.
This construction at the Belvedere was executed by him with
extraordinary speed, and such was his e