History of 17th century early modern domes
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Early modern domes built in the 17th century used traditional geometric and proportional techniques for masonry domes and lanterns and relied on graphical or empirical solutions to the geometric problems created by oval domes. In the 17th century, analytical approaches were developed and the ideal shape for a dome was debated, but these approaches were often considered too theoretical to be used in construction. From the late 17th century, there was a shift away from proportional rules to a culture of testing.
Traditional Orthodox church domes were used in hundreds of Orthodox and Uniate wooden churches in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and Tatar wooden mosques in Poland were domed central plan structures with adjacent minarets. Bulbous domes became popular in central and southern Germany and in Austria in the 17th century, and influenced those in Poland and Eastern Europe in the Baroque period. Onion spires are predominant in Bavarian country churches and onion domes over Bavarian pilgrimage churches may indicate influence from Prague.
In Spain, false vaults made of wood or reed and covered with plaster were in chapel domes to give the appearance of stone construction. An anti-seismic technique for building called quincha was adapted from local Peruvian practice for domes and became universally adopted along the Peruvian coast. A similar lightweight technique was used in eastern Sicily after earthquakes struck in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In Naples, it was customary in the 17th and 18th centuries to cover domes with polychrome majolica tilework influenced by Arabic art.
Oval plan churches spread outside of Rome following Vignola's innovation with the church of Sant'Anna dei Palafrenieri. Guarino Guarini established the oval dome as a reconciliation of the longitudinal plan church favored by the liturgy of the Counter-Reformation and the centralized plan favored by idealists. He also originated the idea of a large oculus in a solid dome revealing a second dome.