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 Italian
painter, architect, and writer. Vasari's The Lives of the Artists
is perhaps the most important book on the history of art ever written.
It is an invaluable source for information about the early artists
of Italy, although Vasari was a local patriot- he favoured Tuscans
- and there are many errors respecting the earlier masters.
"It goes without saying that the arts must have been discovered
by some one person; and I realize that someone made a beginning
at some time. And of course it is possible for one man to have
helped another, and to have taught and opened the way to design,
colour, and relief; for I know that our art consists first and
foremost the imitation of nature but then, since it cannot reach
such heights unaided, in the imitation of the most accomplished
artists."
(from The Lives)
Giorgio Vasari was born in Arezzo in Tuscany. At that time the
town was subject to the republic of Florence. Its most important
family was the Medicis, who were great patrons of art. Cosimo Medici
(1389-1464) was regarded as the model for Macchiavelli's The
Prince. While still a boy Vasari was introduced to Cardinal
Silvio Passerini who put him to study in Florence, in the circle
of Andrea del Sarto and his pupils Rosso and Pontormo. There he
met Michelangelo, who was soon called to Rome. However, Vasari idolized
him as an artist for the rest of his life. Vasari's father died
of the plague, leaving him a family to support. He started to practice
architecture and earned enough money to arrange the marriage of
one of his sisters and place another in the Murate at Arezzo.
Vasari left Florence when his patron, Duke Alessandro, was assassinated.
He wandered from town to town, filling his notebooks with sketches.
The Cardinal Ippolito de Medici, Pope Clemet VII and the Dukes Alessandro
and Cosmo, successively engaged him in their service.
Vasari worked as a painter between Florence and Rome. During this
period he started to plan his book about artists. In his thirties
Vasari was a well-paid and successful painter. Among his principal
works in Florence are Palazzo Vecchio's frescoes but he never completed
the decoration for the cupola of the cathedral. In Rome he made
the greater part of the historical decoration 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 and his own house in Arezzo
is now a museum. As an architect he designed with Vignola and Ammanati
the Villa di Papa Giulio in Rome. Several buildings at Pistoia were
built after his designs. His only important independent architectural
work in seen in the Uffici Palace, which begun in 1560. It has a
beautiful narrow courtyard stretching down towards the river. Vasari's
other works include the Palazzo dei Cavalieri at Pisa, the tomb
of Michelangelo in Santa Croce, and the Loggie in Arezzo.
Vasari's fame rests on the book "Vite de' più eccellenti Architetti,
Pittori, et Scultori Italiani..." Its first edition appeared in
1550. Vasari believed optimistically in historical progress. His
aim was to show how the greatness of Ancient Rome died in the "dark
ages" because of the destructiveness of barbarian tribes and the
Christian antagonism to pictures. From Giotto the Tuscan started
a revival of art. Vasari emphasized Giotto's fidelity to nature.
The ultimate perfection was reached in the hands of Michelangelo,
also a Tuscan. In the first edition Michelangelo is the climax of
Vasari's story, but the later edition of 1568 includes a number
of other living artist and Vasari's own autobiography. In Vasari's
conception of history, art and culture passes through three phases,
from infancy to full maturity, and to "infinite improvements in
everything."
 Vasari
provides the reader with glimpses of the financial situation of
artists. He mentions that Filippo Lippi could not buy himself a
pair of stockings, and in his old age, Paolo Uccello complains that
he owns nothing, cannot work any longer and has a sick wife. However,
in general artists of the early Renaissance were not paid too badly.
Indeed because of the increasing demand for works of art some of
the celebrated masters enjoyed a considerable income. Vasari's view
of Michelangelo reflects a new element in the Renaissance conception
of art - the discovery of the concept of genius. According to his
belief, "the benign ruler of heaven" decided to send "into
the world an artist who would be skilled in each and every craft"
and determined to give Michelangelo "the knowledge of true moral
philosophy and the gift of poetic expression, so that everyone might
admire and follow him as their perfect exemplar in life, work, and
behaviour and in every endeavour, and he would be acclaimed as divine."
Vasari did not meet Leonardo da Vinci, who died in 1519. He mentions
that Leonardo and Michelangelo strongly disliked each other and
that he has an example of Leonardo's drawings. As in other portraits,
Vasari combines anecdotes with biographical details and analysis
of works. Accordin to Vasari, Leonardo was "so strong that he
could withstand any violence; with his right hand he would bend
the iron ring of a doorbell or a horseshoe as if they were lead."
In 1555 Vasari returned to Florence to serve Duke Cosimo who appointed
him architect of the Palazzo Vecchio. In 1563 he founded the Accademia
del Disegno - the Grand Duke and Michelangelo were 'capi' of
the institution and thirty-six artists were chosen to be members.
For the second, enlarged and improved edition of The Lives,
Vasari made another tour round Italy and gathered new material and
checked his facts. In 1571 Pope Pius knighted him. He died in Florence
on June 27, 1574.
For further reading: The Life of Giorgio Vasari by Robert
W. Carden (1910); Classic Art by H. Wölfflin (1952, first published
in 1899); Vasari's Life and Lives by Einar Rud (1963); Giorgio
Vasari : Architect and Courtierby Leon Satkowski (1994); Giorgio
Vasari: Art and History by Patricia Lee Rubin (995); Vasari's
Florence: Artists and Literati at the Medicean Court, ed. by Philip
Jacks (1998)
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