# St Peter's Basilica seen from east [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [HEEMSKERCK, Maerten van]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Pen, ink on paper, 222 x 273 mm ## Commentary St Peter's Basilica seen from east c. 1535 Pen, ink on paper, 222 x 273 mm Staatliche Museen, Berlin In the years following the Sack of Rome \(1527-28\), the architectural activity of the Vatican state reached an all-time low. St. Peter's was particularly affected by this. Though taxes had been raised yet again, the German-speaking countries, in particular, refused to pay them. The progress of the work on St. Peter's, which was directed for a long period by Antonio da Sangallo, was correspondingly slow. The sketch drawn by Maerten van Heemskerck in 1535 shows that the building site of St. Peter's was effectively a ruin. The <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/s/sangallo/antonio2/model.html'\)" href="/html/s/sangallo/antonio2/model.html">wooden model</a> Antonio da Sangallo produced was neither simple nor monumental. Michelangelo, who after Sangallo's death took over the commission, strongly criticised the model, and developed a new plan. ## Related artworks - [Annunciation]() - [Christ Being Crowned with Thorns]() - [Construction of the New St Peter's in Rome]() - [Crucifixion \(detail\)]() - [Crucifixion]() - [Crucifixion \(Triptych\)]() - [Ecce Homo Triptych]() - [Family Portrait]() - [Forum of Nerva]() - [Garden of the Casa Galli]() - [Garden of the Villa Madama]() - [Hercules of the Forum Boarium]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()