Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari (Arezzo, Tuscany July 3, 1511 - Florence, June 27, 1574) was an Italian painter and architect, mainly known for his famous biographies of Italian artists.

Related Topics:
Arezzo - Tuscany - July 3 - 1511 - Florence - June 27 - 1574 - Italian - Painter - Architect - Biographies

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At a very early age he became a pupil of Guglielmo da Marsiglia, a very skilful painter of stained glass, to whom he was recommended by his own kinsman, the painter Luca Signorelli. At the age of sixteen Cardinal Silvio Passerini who sent him to study in Florence, in the circle of Andrea del Sarto and his pupils Rosso and Jacopo Pontormo. His humanist education was not ignored, and he met and knew Michelangelo, whose painting style influenced Vasari's.

Related Topics:
Guglielmo da Marsiglia - Stained glass - Luca Signorelli - Florence - Andrea del Sarto - Rosso - Jacopo Pontormo - Michelangelo

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In 1529 he visited Rome and studied the works of Raphael and others of the Roman High Renaissance of the previous generation. Vasari's own Mannerist paintings were more admired in his lifetime than afterwards. He was consistently employed by patrons in the Medici family in Florence and Rome, and he worked in Naples, Arezzo and other places. Many of his pictures still exist, the most important being the wall and ceiling paintings in the great hall of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, and his broad, uncompleted frescoes inside the dome of the Florentine Duomo.

Related Topics:
1529 - Rome - Raphael - High Renaissance - Mannerist - Medici family - Florence - Naples - Palazzo Vecchio - Fresco - Florentine Duomo

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As an architect he was perhaps more successful. The loggia of the Palazzo degli Uffizi by the Arno opens up the vista at the far end of its long narrow courtyard, a unique piece of urbanistic planning that functions as a public piazza, and which, if one considered it as a short street, is the unique Renaissance street with a unified architectural treatment. In Florence Vasari also built the long passage connecting the Uffizi with the Pitti Palace, through arcading across the Ponte Vecchio. Unhappily he did much to injure the fine medieval churches of Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce, from both of which he removed the original rood screen and loft, and remodelled the retro-choir in the Mannerist taste of his time.

Related Topics:
Loggia - Palazzo degli Uffizi - Arno - Pitti Palace - Ponte Vecchio - Church - Santa Maria Novella - Santa Croce - Rood screen - Choir

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In Rome, Vasari worked with Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and Bartolomeo Ammanati at Pope Julius III's Villia Giulia.

Related Topics:
Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola - Bartolomeo Ammanati - Pope Julius III - Villia Giulia

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Vasari enjoyed a very high repute during his lifetime and amassed a considerable fortune. He built himself in 1547 a fine house in Arezzo (now a museum honoring him), and spent much labour in decorating its walls and vaults with paintings. He was elected one of the municipal council or priori of his native town, and finally rose to the supreme office of gonfaloniere.

Related Topics:
1547 - Priori - Gonfalonier

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In 1563 he founded the Accademia del Disegno at Florence, with the Grand Duke and Michelangelo as capi of the institution and thirty-six artists chosen for members. He died at Florence on June 27, 1574.

Related Topics:
June 27 - 1574

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