CHAPTER EIGHT THE DOMED TEMPLE IN RENAISSANCE ITALY AND IN EARLY PRINTED SOURCES During the Italian Renaissance the motif of the circular or octagonal Temple of Solomon took on a life of its own, for it became linked to the idea of a centralized church plan. Such a circular plan with its uniformity and har- mony came to connote the justice of God. Architects of the period ranked round and domical temples above all others, often spurred on, additionally, by their admiration for classical Roman architecture such as the Pantheon.1 In this climate, evoking Solomon’s Temple as a circular building was per- fectly natural, even though it contradicted the biblical text and the rectilin- ear measurements supposedly handed down by God.2 One of the first Renaissance paintings to include a circular Temple is Perugino’s “Delivery of the Keys to St. Peter” in the Sistine Chapel, dating from 1481. (fig. 8.1) Perugino executed the painting under the patronage of Sixtus IV, the pope responsible for the remodeling of the old Capella Magna into the new Sistine Chapel. The architecture and the mural paintings were planned simultaneously in the 1470s and were developed to emphasize the primacy of Rome and the papacy. The Perugino image reflects precisely that theme. In a wide piazza in front of the Temple, Christ gives the keys of temporal and spiritual power to the kneeling Peter. The Gospel passage referenced is Jesus’ pronouncement that he will hand over the keys of heaven to Peter (Matthew 16:18–20). Though Matthew’s Gospel records Jesus’ words, the text does not relate the actual handover—that had to be imagined. The dialogue did not in fact occur in Jerusalem, but rather in the district of Caesarea Philippi. No matter. The act of turning over the keys to Peter could be thought of as taking place anywhere, and in this mural painting Rome is referenced by the depiction of the flanking Constantinian triumphal arches. By setting the event before ancient Roman monuments, Perugino and his patron Six- tus IV enhanced the importance of Rome and the Vatican and implicitly 1 E. Baldwin Smith, The Dome (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1978), 93; Otto Von Simson, The Gothic Cathedral (New York: Pantheon Books, 1956), 37. 2 Smith, The Dome, 93. 150 chapter eight 8.1. Christ delivers the Keys to Saint Peter. Pietro Perugino. 1481–1483. Sistine Chapel, Vatican Palace, Vatican State. Photo Credit: Scala/Art Resource, NY..