On Plate LXXXIV is a sketch of the plan of a similar circular building; and the Mausoleum on Pl.  XCVIII, no less than one of the pedestals for the statue of Francesco Sforza (Pl.  LXV), is of the same type.

The drawings Pl.  LXXXIV No. 2, Pl.  LXXXVI No. 1 and 2 and the ground flour ("flour” sic but should be “floor” ?) of the building in the drawing Pl.  XCI No. 2, with the interesting decoration by gigantic statues in large niches, are also, I believe, more in the style Bramante adopted at Rome, than in the Lombard style.  Are we to conclude from this that Leonardo on his part influenced Bramante in the sense of simplifying his style and rendering it more congenial to antique art?  The answer to this important question seems at first difficult to give, for we are here in presence of Bramante, the greatest of modern architects, and with Leonardo, the man comparable with no other.  We have no knowledge of any buildings erected by Leonardo, and unless we admit personal intercourse—­which seems probable, but of which there is no proof—­, it would be difficult to understand how Leonardo could have affected Bramante’s style.  The converse is more easily to be admitted, since Bramante, as we have proved elsewhere, drew and built simultaneously in different manners, and though in Lombardy there is no building by him in his classic style, the use of brick for building, in that part of Italy, may easily account for it._

Bramante’s name is incidentally mentioned in Leonardo’s manuscripts in two passages (Nos. 1414 and 1448).  On each occasion it is only a slight passing allusion, and the nature of the context gives us no due information as to any close connection between the two artists.

It might be supposed, on the ground of Leonardo’s relations with the East given in sections XVII and XXI of this volume, that some evidence of oriental influence might be detected in his architectural drawings.  I do not however think that any such traces can be pointed out with certainty unless perhaps the drawing for a Mausoleum, Pl.  XC VIII.

Among several studies for the construction of cupolas above a Greek cross there are some in which the forms are decidedly monotonous.  These, it is clear, were not designed as models of taste; they must be regarded as the results of certain investigations into the laws of proportion, harmony and contrast.

The designs for churches, on the plan of a Latin cross are evidently intended to depart as little as possible from the form of a Greek cross; and they also show a preference for a nave surrounded with outer porticos.

The architectural forms preferred by Leonardo are pilasters coupled (Pl.  LXXXII No. 1; or grouped (Pl.  LXXX No. 5 and XCIV No. 4), often combined with niches.  We often meet with orders superposed, one in each story, or two small orders on one story, in combination with one great order (Pl.  XCVI No. 2).