Vasari, Giorgio

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[[image:Vasari.jpg|thumb|250px|Vasari's self-portrait.]]
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'''Giorgio Vasari''' ([[July 30]], [[1511]] – [[June 27]], [[1574]]) was an [[Italy|Italian]] [[painter]] and [[architect]], known for his famous [[biography|biographies]] of Italian artists.
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[[image:Vasari.jpg|thumb|240px|Vasari's self-portrait.]]
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'''Giorgio Vasari''' (July 30, 1511 – June 27, 1574) was an [[Italy|Italian]] painter and architect, known best for his biographies of Italian artists. Vasari had the opportunity to meet [[Michelangelo]] and some of the leading humanists of the time. He was consistently employed by patrons in the [[Medici family]] in Florence and Rome, and he worked in Naples, Arezzo, and other places. Some of Vasari’s major paintings include the Palazzo Vecchio’s frescoes, ''The Lord’s Supper,'' in the cathedral of Arezzo, and historical decorations of the Sala Regia at the [[Vatican]]. Partnered with Vignola and Ammanati, Vasari designed the Villa di Papa Giulio in Rome, but Vasari’s only significant independent architectural work is seen in the Uffizi Palace.
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As the first Italian art historian, Vasari initiated the genre of an encyclopedia of artistic biographies that continues today. ''Vite de' più eccellenti Architetti, Pittori, e Scultori Italiani…'' (or better known as ''The Vite'') was first published in 1550. In 1571, he was knighted by [[Pope Pius]].
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==Life==
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[[Image:The Mutiliation of Uranus by Saturn.jpg|thumb|380px|''The Castration of Uranus'': fresco by Vasari & Cristofano Gherardi (c. 1560, Sala di Cosimo I, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence).]]
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Giorgio Vasari was born in Arezzo, Tuscany, in 1511. When he was very young, at the recommendation of his cousin Luca Signorelli, he became a pupil of Guglielmo da Marsiglia, a skillful painter of stained glass. When Vasari was 16, he was introduced to Cardinal Silvio Passerini who was able to place Vasari in Florence to study in the circle of Andrea del Sarto and his pupils, Rosso Fiorentino and Jacopo Pontormo. Vasari came into close contact with some of the leading humanists of the time. Piero Valeriano, a classical scholar and the author of the ''Hieroglyphica,'' was one of Vasari’s teachers. In Florence, Vasari had the opportunity to meet Michelangelo and would continue to idolize him throughout his own artistic career. When Vasari’s father died of the [[plague]], Vasari was left to support to his family. He practiced architecture in order to earn enough money to arrange the marriage of one of his sisters and put another in the Murate at Arezzo.  
  
==Biography==
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In 1529, he visited [[Rome]] and studied the works of Raffaello Santi (Raphael) and others of the Roman High Renaissance. 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. Some of Vasari’s other patrons included the Cardinal Ippolito de Medici, [[Pope Clement VII]], and the Dukes Alessandro and Cosmo. At the assassination of Vasari’s patron Duke Alessandro, Vasari left Florence and moved from town to town. It was around this time that he launched the plans for his book on artists. Possibly around 1546, while spending an evening in Cardinal Farnese’s house, the bishop of Nocera addressed the need for a literary account of famous artists. Paolo Giovio and Vasari decided to embark on this challenge, but early on, Giovio gave up the idea of writing such a book.
Vasari was born in [[Arezzo]], [[Tuscany]]. At the recommendation by his cousin [[Luca Signorelli]], at an early age he became a pupil of [[Guglielmo da Marsiglia]], a skillful painter of [[stained glass]]. At the age of 16, Cardinal Silvio Passerini sent him to study in [[Florence]], in the circle of [[Andrea del Sarto]] and his pupils [[Rosso Fiorentino]] and [[Jacopo Pontormo]]. His humanist education was not ignored, and he met and knew [[Michelangelo]], whose painting style influenced Vasari's.
 
  
[[Image:DetailInteriorSantaMariaDelFiore.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Interior of the Duomo of Florence.]]
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Vasari enjoyed a high reputation during his lifetime and amassed a considerable fortune. In 1547, he built himself a fine house in Arezzo (now a museum honoring him), and spent much labor 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''. In 1563, he helped found the Florence ''Accademia del Disegno'' (now the ''Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze''), with the Grand Duke and [[Michelangelo]] as ''capi'' of the institution and 36 artists chosen as members.
  
In [[1529]] he visited [[Rome]] and studied the works of [[Raffaello Santi|Raphael]] and others of the Roman [[High Renaissance]]. 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 Sala di Cosimo I of the [[Palazzo Vecchio]] in Florence, where he and his assistants were at work from 1555, and his uncompleted [[fresco]]es inside the vast dome of the [[Santa Maria del Fiore|Duomo]], completed by [[Federico Zuccari]] and with the help of [[Giovanni Balducci]]. He also helped organize the decoration of the [[Studiolo of Francesco I (Palazzo Vecchio)|Studiolo]], now reassembled in the Palazzo Vecchio.  He was essentially the "Dick Clark" of the Renaissance, a leader in the art world, although not so much as a renowned artist but as a director of artistic productions.[[User:24.59.105.127|24.59.105.127]] 22:11, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
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In 1571, he was knighted by Pope Pius. Vasari died in Florence on June 27, 1574. Following his death, work at the Uffizi was completed by Bernardo Buontalenti.  
[[Image:The Mutiliation of Uranus by Saturn.jpg|thumb|240px|''The Castration of Uranus'': fresco by Vasari & [[Cristofano Gherardi]] (c. 1560, Sala di Cosimo I, [[Palazzo Vecchio]], Florence).]]
 
As an architect, Vasari was perhaps more successful than as a painter. The [[loggia]] of the [[Uffizi|Palazzo degli Uffizi]] by the [[Arno]] opens up the vista at the far end of its long narrow courtyard, a unique piece of urban 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 [[church]]es of [[Santa Maria Novella]] and [[Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence|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.
 
  
In Rome, Vasari worked with [[Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola]] and [[Bartolomeo Ammanati]] at [[Pope Julius III]]'s [[Villa Giulia]].  
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==Thought and works==
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Vasari was perhaps more successful as an architect than as a painter. He was more independent, and his temporary decorations for state ceremonies offered him occasions for experimentation. Partnered with Vignola and Ammanati, Vasari designed the Villa di Papa Giulio in Rome. Vasari’s only significant independent architectural work is seen in the [[Uffizi Palace]], which had been started in 1560. The Uffizi was designed to be the government offices of the new Tuscan state. The finest point of the Uffizi is the spacious loggia overlooking the Arno. Vasari’s other pieces include the Palazzo dei Cavalieri at Piza, the tomb of Michelangelo in Santa Croce, and the Loggie in Arezzo.
  
Vasari enjoyed a high repute during his lifetime and amassed a considerable fortune. In [[1547]] he built himself 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 [[gonfalonier]]e.  
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Some of Vasari’s major works in Florence are the Palazzo Vecchio’s frescoes, although he never completed the decoration of the cupola of the cathedral. In Rome, he contributed to a large part of the historical decorations of the Sala Regia at the Vatican and the so-called ''100 days fresco'' in the Sala della Cancerria, in the Palazzo San Giorgio. In the cathedral of Arezzo he painted ''The Lord’s Supper.''
  
In 1563, he helped found the Florence ''Accademia del Disegno'' (now the ''[[Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze]]''), with the Grand Duke and Michelangelo as ''capi'' of the institution and 36 artists chosen as members.  
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=== The ''Vite'' ===
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[[image:Vite.jpg|thumb|240px|A cover of the ''Vite''.]]
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Giorgio Vasari’s modern day fame is not due to his architectural or painted creations, but to his book ''Vite de' più eccellenti Architetti, Pittori, e Scultori Italiani…'' (better known as simply, ''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 [[Leone Battista Alberti|Alberti]].  
  
Vasari died at Florence on [[June 27]], [[1574]].
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Vasari's 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 ''Le Vite delle più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori'' (or, in English, ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects''). In the first edition, Michelangelo is the climax of Vasari’s story, but the 1568 edition includes a number of other living artists as well as Vasari’s own autobiography.
  
== The ''Vite'' ==
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The work has a consistent and notorious bias in favor of Florentines and tends to attribute to them all the new developments in Renaissance art—for example, the invention of engraving. Venetian art in particular, along with art from other parts of Europe, is systematically ignored. Between his first and second editions, Vasari visited Venice and the second edition gave more attention to Venetian art (finally including [[Titian]]) without achieving a neutral point of view.  
[[image:Vite.jpg|thumb|200px|A cover of 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 [[Leone Battista Alberti|Alberti]]. Vasari's 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 ''[[Le Vite delle più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori]]'' (or, in English, ''[[Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects]]'').    
 
  
The work has a consistent and notorious bias in favour of Florentines and tends to attribute to them all the new developments in Renaissance art—for example, the invention of [[engraving]]. Venetian art in particular, let alone other parts of Europe, is systematically ignored. Between his first and second editions, Vasari visited Venice and the second edition gave more attention to Venetian art (finally including [[Titian]]) without achieving a neutral point of view.  
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Vasari’s concept of history, art, and culture pass through three phases. He saw the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, characterized by artists such as Cimabue and Tiotto, as the “infancy” of art. The period of “youthful vigor” came next, seen in the works of [[Donatello]], [[Brunelleschi]], Ghiberti, and Masaccio. The mature period was the last phase, represented by [[Leonardo]], [[Raphael]], and [[Michelangelo]]. Vasari’s view of Michelangelo produced a new component in the Renaissance perception of art—the breakthrough of the notion of a "genius."
  
Vasari's biographies are interspersed with amusing gossip. Many of his anecdotes have the ring of truth, although likely inventions. Others are generic fictions, such as the tale of young [[Giotto]] painting a fly on the surface of a painting by [[Cimabue]] that the older master repeatedly tried to brush away, a genre tale that echoes anecdotes told of the Greek painter Apelles. With a few exceptions, however, Vasari's aesthetic judgment was acute and unbiased. He did not research archives for exact dates, as modern art historians do, and naturally his biographies are most dependable for the painters of his own generation and the immediately preceding one. Modern criticism—with all the new materials opened up by research—has corrected many of his traditional dates and attributions. The work remains a classic even today, though it must be supplemented by modern critical research.
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Vasari's biographies are interspersed with amusing gossip. Many of his anecdotes have the ring of truth, although they are likely inventions. Others are generic fictions, such as the tale of young Giotto painting a fly on the surface of a painting by Cimabue that the older master repeatedly tried to brush away, a genre tale that echoes anecdotes told of the Greek painter Apelles. With a few exceptions, however, Vasari's aesthetic judgment was acute and unbiased. He did not research archives for exact dates, as modern art historians do, and naturally his biographies are most dependable for the painters of his own generation and the immediately preceding one. Modern criticism, with all the new materials opened up by research, has corrected many of his traditional dates and attributions. The work remains a classic even today, though it must be supplemented by modern critical research.
  
Vasari includes 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 de' Rossi (Il Salviati)|Francesco Salviati]]. The ''Lives'' have been translated into French, German and English.
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Vasari includes 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 de' Rossi (Il Salviati). The ''Lives'' have been translated into French, German, and English.<ref>Easyweb, [http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/giorgio.vasari/lives.htm  Excerpts from the ''Vite'' combined with photos of works mentioned by Vasari.] Retrieved June 21, 2007.</ref>
  
*[http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/giorgio.vasari/vaspref.htm Excerpts from the ''Vite'' combined with photos of works mentioned by Vasari.]
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The following list respects the order of the book, as divided into its three parts.
 
 
=== Biographies ===
 
The ''Vite'' contains the biographies of many important Italian artists, and is also adopted as a sort of classical reference guide for their names, which are sometimes used in different ways. The following list respects the order of the book, as divided into its three parts.
 
  
 
==== Part 1 ====
 
==== Part 1 ====
* [[Cimabue]]
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* Cimabue
* [[Arnolfo di Cambio|Arnolfo di Lapo]]
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* Arnolfo di Cambio|Arnolfo di Lapo
* [[Nicola Pisano]]
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* Nicola Pisano
* [[Giovanni Pisano]]
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* Giovanni Pisano
* [[Andrea Tafi (artist)|Andrea Tafi]]
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* Andrea Tafi  
* [[Giotto di Bondone|Giotto]]
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* Giotto di Bondone (Giotto)
* [[Pietro Lorenzetti]] (Pietro Laurati)
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* Pietro Lorenzetti (Pietro Laurati)
* [[Andrea Pisano]]
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* Andrea Pisano
* [[Buonamico Buffalmacco]]
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* Buonamico Buffalmacco
* [[Ambrogio Lorenzetti]] (Ambruogio Laurati)
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* Ambrogio Lorenzetti (Ambruogio Laurati)
* [[Pietro Cavallini]]
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* Pietro Cavallini
* [[Simone Martini]]
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* Simone Martini
* [[Taddeo Gaddi]]
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* Taddeo Gaddi
* [[Andrea Orcagna]] (Andrea di Cione)
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* Andrea Orcagna (Andrea di Cione)
* [[Agnolo Gaddi]]
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* Agnolo Gaddi
* [[Duccio]]
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* Duccio
* [[Gherardo Starnina]]
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* Gherardo Starnina
* [[Lorenzo Monaco]]
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* Lorenzo Monaco
* [[Taddeo Bartoli]]
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* Taddeo Bartoli
  
 
==== Part 2 ====
 
==== Part 2 ====
* [[Jacopo della Quercia]]
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* Jacopo della Quercia
* [[Nanni di Banco]]
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* Nanni di Banco
* [[Luca della Robbia]]
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* Luca della Robbia
* [[Paolo Uccello]]
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* Paolo Uccello
* [[Lorenzo Ghiberti]]
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* Lorenzo Ghiberti
* [[Masolino da Panicale]]
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* Masolino da Panicale
* [[Tommaso Masaccio|Masaccio]]
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* Tommaso Masaccio
* [[Filippo Brunelleschi]]
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* Filippo Brunelleschi
* [[Donatello]]
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* Donatello
* [[Giuliano da Maiano]]
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* Giuliano da Maiano
* [[Piero della Francesca]]
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* Piero della Francesca
* [[Fra Angelico]]
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* Fra Angelico
* [[Leon Battista Alberti]]
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* Leon Battista Alberti
* [[Antonello da Messina]]
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* Antonello da Messina
* [[Alessio Baldovinetti]]
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* Alessio Baldovinetti
* [[Fra Filippo Lippi]]
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* Fra Filippo Lippi
* [[Andrea del Castagno]]
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* Andrea del Castagno
* [[Domenico Veneziano]]
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* Domenico Veneziano
* [[Gentile da Fabriano]]
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* Gentile da Fabriano
* [[Pisanello|Vittore Pisanello]]
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* Vittore Pisanello
* [[Benozzo Gozzoli]]
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* Benozzo Gozzoli
* [[Vecchietta]] (Francesco di Giorgio e di Lorenzo)
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* Vecchietta (Francesco di Giorgio e di Lorenzo)
* [[Antonio Rossellino]]
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* Antonio Rossellino
* [[Bernardo Rossellino]]
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* Bernardo Rossellino
* [[Desiderio da Settignano]]
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* Desiderio da Settignano
* [[Mino da Fiesole]]
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* Mino da Fiesole
* [[Lorenzo Costa]]
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* Lorenzo Costa
* [[Ercole Ferrarese]]
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* Ercole Ferrarese
* [[Jacopo Bellini]]
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* Jacopo Bellini
* [[Giovanni Bellini]]
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* Giovanni Bellini
* [[Gentile Bellini]]
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* Gentile Bellini
* [[Cosimo Rosselli]]
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* Cosimo Rosselli
* [[Domenico Ghirlandaio]]
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* Domenico Ghirlandaio
* [[Antonio Pollaiuolo]]
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* Antonio Pollaiuolo
* [[Piero Pollaiuolo]]
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* Piero Pollaiuolo
* [[Sandro Botticelli]]
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* Sandro Botticelli
* [[Andrea del Verrocchio]]
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* Andrea del Verrocchio
* [[Andrea Mantegna]]
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* Andrea Mantegna
* [[Filippino Lippi]]
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* Filippino Lippi
* [[Pinturicchio|Bernardino Pinturicchio]]
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* Bernardino Pinturicchio
* [[Francesco Francia]]
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* Francesco Francia
* [[Perugino|Pietro Perugino]]
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* Pietro Perugino
* [[Luca Signorelli]]
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* Luca Signorelli
  
 
==== Part 3 ====
 
==== Part 3 ====
  
 
* [[Leonardo da Vinci]]
 
* [[Leonardo da Vinci]]
* [[Giorgione da Castelfranco]]
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* Giorgione da Castelfranco
* [[Antonio da Correggio]]
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* Antonio da Correggio
* [[Piero di Cosimo]]
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* Piero di Cosimo
* [[Donato Bramante]] (Bramante da Urbino)
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* Donato Bramante (Bramante da Urbino)
* [[Fra Bartolomeo]] Di San Marco  
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* Fra Bartolomeo Di San Marco  
* [[Mariotto Albertinelli]]
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* Mariotto Albertinelli  
* [[Raffaellino del Garbo]]
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* Raffaellino del Garbo  
* [[Pietro Torrigiano]] (''Torrigiano'')
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* Pietro Torrigiano  
* [[Giuliano da Sangallo]]
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* Giuliano da Sangallo
* [[Antonio da Sangallo]]
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* Antonio da Sangallo
* [[Raffaello Santi|Raphael]]
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* Raffaello Santi|Raphael
 
* Guglielmo Da Marcilla
 
* Guglielmo Da Marcilla
* [[Simone del Pollaiolo]] (''il Cronaca'')
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* Simone del Pollaiolo ''(il Cronaca)''
* [[Davide Ghirlandaio|Davide]] and [[Benedetto Ghirlandaio]] (''David and Benedetto Ghirladaio'')
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* Davide Ghirlandaio ''(David and Benedetto Ghirladaio)''
* [[Domenico Puligo]]
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* Domenico Puligo
* [[Andrea da Fiesole]] (Bregna?)
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* Andrea da Fiesole (Bregna?)
* [[Vincenzo Tamagni| Vincenzo da San Gimignano]]
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* Vincenzo Tamagni (Vincenzo da San Gimignano)
* [[Andrea Sansovino]] (''Andrea dal Monte Sansovino'')
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* Andrea Sansovino ''(Andrea dal Monte Sansovino)''
* [[Benedetto Grazzini|Benedetto da Rovezzano]]
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* Benedetto Grazzini (Benedetto da Rovezzano)
* [[Baccio da Montelupo]] and [[Raffaello da Montelupo]] (father and son)
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* Baccio da Montelupo and Raffaello da Montelupo (father and son)
* [[Lorenzo di Credi]]
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* Lorenzo di Credi
* [[Boccaccio Boccaccino]](''Boccaccino Cremonese'')
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* Boccaccio Boccaccino''(Boccaccino Cremonese)''  
* [[Lorenzetto]]
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* Lorenzetto  
* [[Baldassare Peruzzi]]
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* Baldassare Peruzzi
* [[Pellegrino da Modena]]
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* Pellegrino da Modena
* [[Gianfrancesco Penni| Giovan Francesco]], also known as ''il Fattore''  
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* Gianfrancesco Penni (Giovan Francesco, also known as ''il Fattore'')
* [[Andrea del Sarto]]
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* Andrea del Sarto
* [[Francesco Granacci]]
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* Francesco Granacci
* [[Baccio D'Agnolo]]
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* Baccio D'Agnolo
* [[Properzia de’ Rossi]]
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* Properzia de’ Rossi
* [[Alfonso Lombardi]]
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* Alfonso Lombardi
* [[Michele Agnolo]]
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* Michele Agnolo  
* [[Girolamo Santacroce]]
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* Girolamo Santacroce  
* [[Dosso Dossi|Dosso]] and [[Batista Dossi|Dossi]] (Dossi brothers)
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* Dosso Dossi (Dosso and Batista Dossi; the Dosso Brothers)
* [[Giovanni Antonio Licino]] (''Giovanni Antonio Licino Da Pordenone'')
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* Giovanni Antonio Licino ''(Giovanni Antonio Licino Da Pordenone)''  
* [[Rosso Fiorentino]]
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* Rosso Fiorentino
* [[Giovanni Antonio Sogliani]]
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* Giovanni Antonio Sogliani  
* [[Girolamo da Treviso]] (''Girolamo Da Trevigi'')
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* Girolamo da Treviso ''(Girolamo Da Trevigi)''  
* [[Polidoro da Caravaggio]] e [[Maturino da Firenze]](''Maturino Fiorentino'')
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* Polidoro da Caravaggio e Maturino da Firenze ''(Maturino Fiorentino)''  
* [[Bartolommeo Ramenghi]] (''Bartolomeo Da Bagnacavallo'')
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* Bartolommeo Ramenghi ''(Bartolomeo Da Bagnacavallo)''  
* [[Marco Calabrese]]
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* Marco Calabrese
* [[Morto Da Feltro]]
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* Morto Da Feltro  
* [[Franciabigio]]
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* Franciabigio  
* [[Francesco Mazzola]]
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* Francesco Mazzola
* [[Jacopo Palma]]  (Il Palma)
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* Jacopo Palma (Il Palma)
* [[Lorenzo Lotto]]
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* Lorenzo Lotto
* [[Giulio Romano]]
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* Giulio Romano
* [[Sebastiano del Piombo]]  (Sebastiano Viniziano)
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* Sebastiano del Piombo (Sebastiano Viniziano)
* [[Perin del Vaga|Perino Del Vaga]]
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* Perin del Vaga (Perino Del Vaga)
* [[Domenico Beccafumi]]
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* Domenico Beccafumi
* [[Baccio Bandinelli]]
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* Baccio Bandinelli
* [[Jacopo da Pontormo]]
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* Jacopo da Pontormo
* [[Michelangelo Buonarroti]]
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* Michelangelo Buonarroti
* [[Titian|Tiziano da Cadore]] (Titian)
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* Titian (Tiziano da Cadore)
* [[Giulio Clovio]], [[illuminated manuscript|manuscript illuminator]]
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* Giulio Clovio
  
== Copies of Vasari’s Lives of the Artists Online ==
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==Notes==
{{commonscat}}
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<references/>
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==Bibliography==
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*''The Lives of the Artists'' (Oxford World's Classics). Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 019283410X
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*''Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Volumes I and II''. Everyman's Library, 1996. ISBN 0679451013
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*''Vasari on Technique''. Dover Publications, 1980. ISBN 048620717X
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*''Life of Michelangelo''. Alba House, 2003. ISBN 0818909358
  
*[http://www.efn.org/~acd/vite/VasariLives.html “Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists.”] Website created by Adrienne DeAngelis. Currently incomplete, intended to be unabridged, in English.  
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==References==
*[http://bepi1949.altervista.org/vasari/vasari00.htm “Le Vite."] 1550 Unabridged, original Italian.
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*Boase, T S R . ''Giorgio Vasari: The Man and the Book''. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1979. ISBN 9780691099057
*[http://www.archive.org/details/storiesoftheital007995mbp “Stories Of The Italian Artists From Vasari.”] Translated by E L Seeley, 1908. Abridged, in English.
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*Cheney, Liana. ''The Homes of Giorgio Vasari''. New York: P. Lang, 2006. ISBN 0820474940
* [http://biblio.cribecu.sns.it/cgi-bin/vasari/Vasari-all?code_f=print_page&work=le_vite&volume_n=6&page_n=213 Le Vite - Edizioni Giuntina e Torrentiniana]
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*Cheney, Liana. ''Giorgio Vasari's Teachers: Sacred & Profane Art''. New York: Peter Lang, 2007. ISBN 0820488135
* [http://www.storiarte.altervista.org/vasarielenco.htm Gli artisti principali citati dal Vasari nelle "Vite" (elenco)]
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*Rubin, Patricia Lee. ''Giorgio Vasari: Art and History''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995. ISBN 9780300049091
 
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*Satkowski, Leon George and Ralph Lieberman. ''Giorgio Vasari: Architect and Courtier''. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993. ISBN 0691032866
== Biographical Information ==
 
*[http://www.articlemyriad.com/36.htm  Biography of Vasari and analysis for four major works]
 
*[http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/gvasari.htm Brief ''Vita'']
 
 
 
== References ==
 
 
{{1911}}
 
{{1911}}
*''The Lives of the Artists'' (Oxford World's Classics). Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-283410-X
 
*''Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Volumes I and II''. Everyman's Library, 1996. ISBN 0-679-45101-3
 
*''Vasari on Technique''. Dover Publications, 1980. ISBN 0-486-20717-X
 
*''Life of Michelangelo''. Alba House, 2003. ISBN 0-8189-0935-8
 
  
[[Category:Tuscan painters|Vasari]]
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==External links==
[[Category:Italian painters|Vasari]]
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All links retrieved June 22, 2017.
[[Category:Mannerist painters|Vasari, Giorgio]]
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*[http://www.efn.org/~acd/vite/VasariLives.html “Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists.”] Website created by Adrienne DeAngelis. Currently incomplete, intended to be unabridged, in English. 
[[Category:Renaissance architects|Vasari, Giorgio]]
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*[http://bepi1949.altervista.org/vasari/vasari00.htm “Le Vite."] 1550 Unabridged, original Italian.
[[Category:Italian art historians|Vasari, Giorgio]]
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*[http://www.archive.org/details/storiesoftheital007995mbp “Stories Of The Italian Artists From Vasari.”] Translated by E L Seeley, 1908. Abridged, in English.
[[Category:Italian biographers|Vasari, Giorgio]]
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*[http://www.storiarte.altervista.org/vasarielenco.htm Gli artisti principali citati dal Vasari nelle "Vite" (elenco)].
[[Category:People from Arezzo (city)|Vasari, Giorgio]]
 
  
 
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[[Category:Artists]]

Latest revision as of 20:37, 22 June 2017

Vasari's self-portrait.

Giorgio Vasari (July 30, 1511 – June 27, 1574) was an Italian painter and architect, known best for his biographies of Italian artists. Vasari had the opportunity to meet Michelangelo and some of the leading humanists of the time. He was consistently employed by patrons in the Medici family in Florence and Rome, and he worked in Naples, Arezzo, and other places. Some of Vasari’s major paintings include the Palazzo Vecchio’s frescoes, The Lord’s Supper, in the cathedral of Arezzo, and historical decorations of the Sala Regia at the Vatican. Partnered with Vignola and Ammanati, Vasari designed the Villa di Papa Giulio in Rome, but Vasari’s only significant independent architectural work is seen in the Uffizi Palace.

As the first Italian art historian, Vasari initiated the genre of an encyclopedia of artistic biographies that continues today. Vite de' più eccellenti Architetti, Pittori, e Scultori Italiani… (or better known as The Vite) was first published in 1550. In 1571, he was knighted by Pope Pius.

Life

The Castration of Uranus: fresco by Vasari & Cristofano Gherardi (c. 1560, Sala di Cosimo I, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence).

Giorgio Vasari was born in Arezzo, Tuscany, in 1511. When he was very young, at the recommendation of his cousin Luca Signorelli, he became a pupil of Guglielmo da Marsiglia, a skillful painter of stained glass. When Vasari was 16, he was introduced to Cardinal Silvio Passerini who was able to place Vasari in Florence to study in the circle of Andrea del Sarto and his pupils, Rosso Fiorentino and Jacopo Pontormo. Vasari came into close contact with some of the leading humanists of the time. Piero Valeriano, a classical scholar and the author of the Hieroglyphica, was one of Vasari’s teachers. In Florence, Vasari had the opportunity to meet Michelangelo and would continue to idolize him throughout his own artistic career. When Vasari’s father died of the plague, Vasari was left to support to his family. He practiced architecture in order to earn enough money to arrange the marriage of one of his sisters and put another in the Murate at Arezzo.

In 1529, he visited Rome and studied the works of Raffaello Santi (Raphael) and others of the Roman High Renaissance. 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. Some of Vasari’s other patrons included the Cardinal Ippolito de Medici, Pope Clement VII, and the Dukes Alessandro and Cosmo. At the assassination of Vasari’s patron Duke Alessandro, Vasari left Florence and moved from town to town. It was around this time that he launched the plans for his book on artists. Possibly around 1546, while spending an evening in Cardinal Farnese’s house, the bishop of Nocera addressed the need for a literary account of famous artists. Paolo Giovio and Vasari decided to embark on this challenge, but early on, Giovio gave up the idea of writing such a book.

Vasari enjoyed a high reputation during his lifetime and amassed a considerable fortune. In 1547, he built himself a fine house in Arezzo (now a museum honoring him), and spent much labor 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. In 1563, he helped found the Florence Accademia del Disegno (now the Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze), with the Grand Duke and Michelangelo as capi of the institution and 36 artists chosen as members.

In 1571, he was knighted by Pope Pius. Vasari died in Florence on June 27, 1574. Following his death, work at the Uffizi was completed by Bernardo Buontalenti.

Thought and works

Vasari was perhaps more successful as an architect than as a painter. He was more independent, and his temporary decorations for state ceremonies offered him occasions for experimentation. Partnered with Vignola and Ammanati, Vasari designed the Villa di Papa Giulio in Rome. Vasari’s only significant independent architectural work is seen in the Uffizi Palace, which had been started in 1560. The Uffizi was designed to be the government offices of the new Tuscan state. The finest point of the Uffizi is the spacious loggia overlooking the Arno. Vasari’s other pieces include the Palazzo dei Cavalieri at Piza, the tomb of Michelangelo in Santa Croce, and the Loggie in Arezzo.

Some of Vasari’s major works in Florence are the Palazzo Vecchio’s frescoes, although he never completed the decoration of the cupola of the cathedral. In Rome, he contributed to a large part of the historical decorations of the Sala Regia at the Vatican and the so-called 100 days fresco in the Sala della Cancerria, in the Palazzo San Giorgio. In the cathedral of Arezzo he painted The Lord’s Supper.

The Vite

A cover of the Vite.

Giorgio Vasari’s modern day fame is not due to his architectural or painted creations, but to his book Vite de' più eccellenti Architetti, Pittori, e Scultori Italiani… (better known as simply, 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 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 Le Vite delle più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori (or, in English, Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects). In the first edition, Michelangelo is the climax of Vasari’s story, but the 1568 edition includes a number of other living artists as well as Vasari’s own autobiography.

The work has a consistent and notorious bias in favor of Florentines and tends to attribute to them all the new developments in Renaissance art—for example, the invention of engraving. Venetian art in particular, along with art from other parts of Europe, is systematically ignored. Between his first and second editions, Vasari visited Venice and the second edition gave more attention to Venetian art (finally including Titian) without achieving a neutral point of view.

Vasari’s concept of history, art, and culture pass through three phases. He saw the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, characterized by artists such as Cimabue and Tiotto, as the “infancy” of art. The period of “youthful vigor” came next, seen in the works of Donatello, Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, and Masaccio. The mature period was the last phase, represented by Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Vasari’s view of Michelangelo produced a new component in the Renaissance perception of art—the breakthrough of the notion of a "genius."

Vasari's biographies are interspersed with amusing gossip. Many of his anecdotes have the ring of truth, although they are likely inventions. Others are generic fictions, such as the tale of young Giotto painting a fly on the surface of a painting by Cimabue that the older master repeatedly tried to brush away, a genre tale that echoes anecdotes told of the Greek painter Apelles. With a few exceptions, however, Vasari's aesthetic judgment was acute and unbiased. He did not research archives for exact dates, as modern art historians do, and naturally his biographies are most dependable for the painters of his own generation and the immediately preceding one. Modern criticism, with all the new materials opened up by research, has corrected many of his traditional dates and attributions. The work remains a classic even today, though it must be supplemented by modern critical research.

Vasari includes 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 de' Rossi (Il Salviati). The Lives have been translated into French, German, and English.[1]

The following list respects the order of the book, as divided into its three parts.

Part 1

  • Cimabue
  • Arnolfo di Cambio|Arnolfo di Lapo
  • Nicola Pisano
  • Giovanni Pisano
  • Andrea Tafi
  • Giotto di Bondone (Giotto)
  • Pietro Lorenzetti (Pietro Laurati)
  • Andrea Pisano
  • Buonamico Buffalmacco
  • Ambrogio Lorenzetti (Ambruogio Laurati)
  • Pietro Cavallini
  • Simone Martini
  • Taddeo Gaddi
  • Andrea Orcagna (Andrea di Cione)
  • Agnolo Gaddi
  • Duccio
  • Gherardo Starnina
  • Lorenzo Monaco
  • Taddeo Bartoli

Part 2

  • Jacopo della Quercia
  • Nanni di Banco
  • Luca della Robbia
  • Paolo Uccello
  • Lorenzo Ghiberti
  • Masolino da Panicale
  • Tommaso Masaccio
  • Filippo Brunelleschi
  • Donatello
  • Giuliano da Maiano
  • Piero della Francesca
  • Fra Angelico
  • Leon Battista Alberti
  • Antonello da Messina
  • Alessio Baldovinetti
  • Fra Filippo Lippi
  • Andrea del Castagno
  • Domenico Veneziano
  • Gentile da Fabriano
  • Vittore Pisanello
  • Benozzo Gozzoli
  • Vecchietta (Francesco di Giorgio e di Lorenzo)
  • Antonio Rossellino
  • Bernardo Rossellino
  • Desiderio da Settignano
  • Mino da Fiesole
  • Lorenzo Costa
  • Ercole Ferrarese
  • Jacopo Bellini
  • Giovanni Bellini
  • Gentile Bellini
  • Cosimo Rosselli
  • Domenico Ghirlandaio
  • Antonio Pollaiuolo
  • Piero Pollaiuolo
  • Sandro Botticelli
  • Andrea del Verrocchio
  • Andrea Mantegna
  • Filippino Lippi
  • Bernardino Pinturicchio
  • Francesco Francia
  • Pietro Perugino
  • Luca Signorelli

Part 3

  • Leonardo da Vinci
  • Giorgione da Castelfranco
  • Antonio da Correggio
  • Piero di Cosimo
  • Donato Bramante (Bramante da Urbino)
  • Fra Bartolomeo Di San Marco
  • Mariotto Albertinelli
  • Raffaellino del Garbo
  • Pietro Torrigiano
  • Giuliano da Sangallo
  • Antonio da Sangallo
  • Raffaello Santi|Raphael
  • Guglielmo Da Marcilla
  • Simone del Pollaiolo (il Cronaca)
  • Davide Ghirlandaio (David and Benedetto Ghirladaio)
  • Domenico Puligo
  • Andrea da Fiesole (Bregna?)
  • Vincenzo Tamagni (Vincenzo da San Gimignano)
  • Andrea Sansovino (Andrea dal Monte Sansovino)
  • Benedetto Grazzini (Benedetto da Rovezzano)
  • Baccio da Montelupo and Raffaello da Montelupo (father and son)
  • Lorenzo di Credi
  • Boccaccio Boccaccino(Boccaccino Cremonese)
  • Lorenzetto
  • Baldassare Peruzzi
  • Pellegrino da Modena
  • Gianfrancesco Penni (Giovan Francesco, also known as il Fattore)
  • Andrea del Sarto
  • Francesco Granacci
  • Baccio D'Agnolo
  • Properzia de’ Rossi
  • Alfonso Lombardi
  • Michele Agnolo
  • Girolamo Santacroce
  • Dosso Dossi (Dosso and Batista Dossi; the Dosso Brothers)
  • Giovanni Antonio Licino (Giovanni Antonio Licino Da Pordenone)
  • Rosso Fiorentino
  • Giovanni Antonio Sogliani
  • Girolamo da Treviso (Girolamo Da Trevigi)
  • Polidoro da Caravaggio e Maturino da Firenze (Maturino Fiorentino)
  • Bartolommeo Ramenghi (Bartolomeo Da Bagnacavallo)
  • Marco Calabrese
  • Morto Da Feltro
  • Franciabigio
  • Francesco Mazzola
  • Jacopo Palma (Il Palma)
  • Lorenzo Lotto
  • Giulio Romano
  • Sebastiano del Piombo (Sebastiano Viniziano)
  • Perin del Vaga (Perino Del Vaga)
  • Domenico Beccafumi
  • Baccio Bandinelli
  • Jacopo da Pontormo
  • Michelangelo Buonarroti
  • Titian (Tiziano da Cadore)
  • Giulio Clovio

Notes

Bibliography

  • The Lives of the Artists (Oxford World's Classics). Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 019283410X
  • Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Volumes I and II. Everyman's Library, 1996. ISBN 0679451013
  • Vasari on Technique. Dover Publications, 1980. ISBN 048620717X
  • Life of Michelangelo. Alba House, 2003. ISBN 0818909358

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Boase, T S R . Giorgio Vasari: The Man and the Book. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1979. ISBN 9780691099057
  • Cheney, Liana. The Homes of Giorgio Vasari. New York: P. Lang, 2006. ISBN 0820474940
  • Cheney, Liana. Giorgio Vasari's Teachers: Sacred & Profane Art. New York: Peter Lang, 2007. ISBN 0820488135
  • Rubin, Patricia Lee. Giorgio Vasari: Art and History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995. ISBN 9780300049091
  • Satkowski, Leon George and Ralph Lieberman. Giorgio Vasari: Architect and Courtier. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993. ISBN 0691032866

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

External links

All links retrieved June 22, 2017.

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