St Peter's Basilica seen from east

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 wooden model 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.