At the end of the eighteenth century it was reckoned that the church had cost but little less than fifty million scudi.
Michael Angelo forms the link between the second and third periods of the Renaissance.

Among the architects of the latter age we have to reckon those who based their practice upon minute study of antique writers, and who, more than any of their predecessors, realised the long-sought restitution of the classic style according to precise scholastic canons.[51] A new age had now begun for Italy.

The glory and the grace of the Renaissance, its blooming time of beauty, and its springtide of young strength, were over.

Strangers held the reins of power, and the Reformation had begun to make itself felt in the Northern provinces of Christendom.

A colder and more formal spirit everywhere prevailed.