Andrea Sansovino executes a marble font for the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Volterra, with good reliefs of the Four Virtues and the Baptism of Christ, in a conservative style evocative of the fourteenth century, in 1502.

Sixteen-year-old Jacopo Tatti begins his training this year in Florence under Sansovino, whose surname he will eventually assume.

Donate Bramante's first work for Pope Julius II, as director of his vast building program, is the construction of the vast (eight hundred and fifty by two hundred and fifty-five feet/two hundred and fifty nine by seventy-eight meters) Cortile del Belvedere of the Vatican Palace in Rome, begun in 1505.

Bramante intends the structure to join the old villa of Innocent VIII with the Vatican Palace across a valley.

Conceived as a single enclosed space, the long Belvedere court connects the Vatican Palace with the Villa Belvedere in a series of terraces connected by stairs, and is contained on its sides by narrow wings.

The upper half of the huge court is to display the Vatican's collection of ancient sculpture, and the lower area is to be used for tournaments and pageants.

At the far end, Bramante places a giant exedra, an enormous semicircular niche capped with a half dome.

Florentine sculptor and architect Jacopo Sansovino in about 1505 follows his master Andrea Sansovino to Rome, where he will absorb classical influences in the course of restoring antique statues.

Bramante is responsible for the design of the apse of the Roman church of Santa Maria del Popolo, constructed in 1508.

The two oldest stained glass windows in Rome can be found here, made by French artist Guillaume de Marcillat.

Pinturicchio decorated the vault with frescoes, including the Coronation of the Virgin.

The tombs of Cardinals Ascanio Sforza and Girolamo Basso della Rovere, both made by Andrea Sansovino, can also be found in the apse.

On Raphael’s return from Florence in 1508, he and his school begin frescoing the Stanze della Segnatura of Pope Julius II.

Il Sodoma, visiting Rome in this year, comes under Raphael’s influence.

Also in 1508, Michelangelo begins an immense project for Julius, the frescoing of the barrel-vaulted ceiling of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel with a pictorial cycle devoted to the biblical history of humanity.

Michelangelo’s scenes illustrate the Book of Genesis, from the Creation to the Flood.