He seems to have evinced, at an early age, a general feeling for poetry and art; and is said to have first studied painting assisted by the works of Fra. Bartolomeo Corradini. During a sojourn at Milan he obtained the friendship of the poet Gaspero Visconti, and in the capacity of a sonneteer and improvisatore exhibited an unusual facility of composition. Of his abilities as a painter in distemper and fresco, examples are to be seen in that city, and at other places in the Milanese territory. On his subsequent removal to Rome, he was employed to execute some paintings (which no longer exist) in the church of S. Giovanni Laterano. Architecture, however, soon claimed Bramante as more particularly her own, and he manifested a zealous ardour in the study of classic examples. It does not appear that he published any volumes on the subject, but we are credibly informed that he industriously measured the ancient remains of Rome, and of Adrian’s villa at Tivoli. The Cardinal Caraffa was among the first to form an estimate of his merits, and commissioned him to rebuild the cloisters of the Monastery della Pace at Rome. He also superintended the execution of the Trastevere Fountain for Pope Alexander VI., and erected great part of the palace della Cancellaria. The church of S. Lorenzo in Damaso, and the circular chapel in the cloister of S. Pietro in Montorio (where St. Peter is said to have been crucified) are also of Bramante’s architecture; nor should we omit to mention him as the designer of the palace in the Piazza di Scossacavalli, which for some time belonged to the English crown, and was presented by Henry VIII. to the Campeggi. Bramante’s designs for other palaces and churches were numerous. Several buildings in Milan are attributed to him, as well as an imperial palace for the Duke of Urbino (never finished), and the church dell’ Incoronata at Lodi.