This image represents an exceptional time in cultural growth not just in Europe, but also globally. The Renaissance was a time of growth in terms of the sciences, the arts, humanism....this dome represents the pinnacle of that cultural growth, not in terms of religion but in terms of architectural design and the artists who had a significant hand in its creation: the genius of Donato Bramante and Michelangelo, and the subsequent input from Giacomo Della Porta and Domenico Fontana.