Williams, Heather IAR 221 Reading Response 9

The original Tempietto structure in Rome was built to represent perfection of the heavens. It is a representation of Heaven on earth by its symmetry and the perfect circle of the structure. A circle is representative of eternity, so it has a lot of importance in the idea of eternal after life in heaven. Another idea supporting this thought is that the dome is pulled upward toward the sky and the windows were made so that the view outside of the building would be toward the sky, cause people to think of eternal life when looking through them. The outside view of this structure shows this through the tall windows that pull upward similar to the gothic cathedral, and the tall center point in the middle of the dome pointing toward the sky, or heavens. St. Paul's Cathedral in London is representative of this structure because it takes the same idea of eternity using a dome shape, but does not copy the building. Instead, it incorporates the dome by making it the center of the structure on top of a cross shaped building. To accentuate the idea of reaching upward, the outside was built taller, and the inside vault was painted to make it appear taller. This shows How two different structures take ideas from another and represent them in their own way, like how the structure in London used the idea of a dome but put it on top of a cross shaped building instead of a circle, and painted the inside to reinforce the idea of height making it appear larger.