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.

The Vite

As the first Italian art historian, he initiated the genre of an encyclopedia of artistic biographies that continues today. Vasari coined the term "Renaissance" (rinascita) in print, though an awareness of the ongoing "rebirth" in the arts had been in the air from the time of Alberti. Vasari's great work was first published in 1550, and dedicated to Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici; it included a valuable treatise on the technical methods employed in the arts. It was partly rewritten and enlarged in 1568 and provided with woodcut portraits of artists (some conjectural), entitled Delle Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori.

Related Topics:
Renaissance - Alberti - 1550 - Cosimo I de' Medici - 1568 - Portraits

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

His biographies are interspersed with amusing stories. Many of Vasari's anecdotes have the ring of truth, although some indeed are too good to be true. Others are generic fictions, like the tale of young Giotto painting a fly on the surface of a painting of Cimabue's, which the older master repeatedly tried to brush away, a genre tale that echoes anecdotes told of the Greek painter Apelles. With a few exceptions Vasari's esthetic judgment is acute and unbiased. Vasari did not rifle archives for exact dates, as modern art historians do, and naturally his biographies are more dependable for the painters of his own generation and the preceding one. Modern criticism - with all the new materials opened up by research - has corrected a good many of his traditional dates and attributions. The result is a tendency very often to underestimate Vasari's accuracy.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The work remains a classic even today, however it may be supplemented by the more critical research of modern days.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Vasari gives a sketch of his own biography at the end of his Vite, and adds further details about himself and his family in his lives of Lazzaro Vasari and Francesco Salviati. The Lives have been translated into French, German and English.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Excerpts from the Vite combined with photos of works mentioned by Vasari.