Built in Rome in 1502 and described as the essence of Renaissance architecture, Donato Bramante's "Tempietto" provided a compelling point of departure for me in designing a sculpture for The South Carolina Botanical Garden. Planned with the rationality of mathematics, the Tempietto's circular configuration was imagined by the sixteenth century viewer as almost a spinning form, the wall of which seemed "shapable and pliant" in the Italian sunlight.
Such a description prompted me to imagine a sculpture which might mix the tradition of great architecture with the simple construction methods of a backyard bird's nest. I envisioned Bramanate's dignified classical form rendered not in stone, but entirely from recycled prunings gathered near The Botanical Garden. I could see something stately and referential, and yet a sapling structure with a surface that suggested the momentum and speeding lines of some impromptu natural phenomena.
When I discovered that the height to width ration of the Tempietto's central barrel is identical to the proportions of many of the mature shrubs in the Botanical Garden, I wondered if Bramante had really discovered the secret of his building's pleasing proportion by walking in his own Roman garden. Given the grand inspiration for the sculpture and its Southern hometown setting, this little Tempietto, rendered in local tree limbs and branches, really seemed to be Sittin' Pretty.
Patrick Dougherty, 1996
