The marble “Laocoon” group, which stands eight feet (two point forty-two meters) tall and was sculpted in the first century BCE, attributed by Pliny the Elder to Rhodian sculptors Agesander, Athenodorus, and Polydorus, is discovered in Rome in 1506.

Widely admired and copied, it attracts much attention from Italian humanists, whose collection of antique statues reflects a growing interest in the classical world of Greece and Rome.

Primarily concerned with art, both the written works of classical authors and the material works of classical sculpture and architecture, this search for and collection of these works of art during the Renaissance gives rise to classical archaeology.

The Portrait of a Cardinal by Raphael depicts an unidentified cardinal in the court of Pope Julius II. (The portrait will be acquired by Charles IV of Spain when he is still a prince, and the picture will be attributed to Antonio Moro, due to its technique, considered unusual in Raphael. It is housed today in the Prado Museum in Madrid.)

Pope Julius II, as the centerpiece of his vast scheme for reconstruction of the Vatican buildings, plans the rebuilding of the dilapidated old St. Peter's church, a Constantinian basilica that is no longer large enough for the vast number of pilgrims who flock there on feast days.

The job of dismantling the old church is begun in 1506.

Donato Bramante proposes for the new Saint Peter's Basilica a central plan, which has recently come back into vogue.

The so-called Parchment Plan of Saint Peter's, drawn by Bramante and Leonardo da Vinci, displays the standard Renaissance scheme: a ring of satellite domes and vaults buttresses the dominating central dome, toward which the soul of the inspired observer is meant to ascend in contemplation.

Earlier Roman and Byzantine domes, designed to be viewed from the interior, thus had relatively little external impact, while the Renaissance dome, elevated on a drum, forms a striking and clearly distinguishable silhouette that dominates the urban skyline.