Externally, according to his conception, the cupola dominated and crowned the edifice when viewed from a moderate or a greater distance.

The cupola was the integral and vital feature of the structure.

By producing one limb of the cross into a nave, destroying the colonnade and portico, and erecting a huge facade of _barocco_ design, his followers threw the interior effect of the cupola into a subordinate position, and externally crushed it out of view, except at a great distance.

In like manner they dealt with every particular of his plan.

As an old writer has remarked: "The cross which Michelangelo made Greek is now Latin; and if it be thus with the essential form, judge ye of the details!" It was not exactly their fault, but rather that of the master, who chose to work by drawings and small clay models, from which no accurate conception of his thought could be derived by lesser craftsmen.
We cannot, therefore, regard S.Peter's in its present state as the creation of Buonarroti's genius.