Why Is Giorgio Vasari Is Important in Art History
Here's my guide to the life and fine art works of Giorgio Vasari. The famed Vasari was an important Florentine architect, artist, and art historian.
Vasari was the man who captured an epoch. He was a painter, architect, connoisseur, and author during the Loftier Renaissance. Vasari is best known equally the earth's first mod art historian, based on his juicy treatise The Lives of the Virtually Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects.
Vasari was esteemed during his lifetime as a painter and an builder, who worked for the mighty Medici association. Every bit a painter, Vasari was solidly average. He played 2nd dabble to the High Renaissance "holy trinity" of Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael.
Simply he was still a supremely talented and multi-faceted Renaissance man. Vasari had his virtually success as an builder and designer of massive decorative projects.
Plus, he possessed a talent for admiration. This habit of reverence may have made Vasari's artwork seem derivative. Simply it served him well as a biographer.
A Brusk Biography of Vasari
And so who is Giorgio Vasari?
We know almost Vasari's life because he wrote his ain autobiography in The Lives. Vasari was born in 1511 in Arezzo, a quaint boondocks in Tuscany just southeast of Florence. He was born to a family unit of potters.
Spurning the family unit vocation, Giorgio was inspired by his great uncle Luca Signorelli, a talented Florentine artist. Signorelli nurtured his interest in drawing. In The Lives, Vasari credits Signorelli with showing "the style to represent nude figures in painting so as to brand them appear alive."
Vasari describes himself as a delicate child with olfactory organ bleeds. He studied Latin in his youth and could recite passages of Virgil from retentiveness. Vasari was extremely literate for his day and thus well qualified to write The Lives.
Vasari was sent to Florence in 1525. He entered the workshop of the talented Andrea del Sarto, joining his pupils Rosso Fiorentino and Jacopo Pontormo. But Vasari was virtually strongly influenced by Michelangelo.
READ: Guide To the Michelangelo Trail in Florence
Vasari became a Mannerist, or belatedly Renaissance, painter. Mannerism departed from the classicism of the High Renaissance. It was a bridge betwixt the idealized style of Renaissance art and the dramatic theatricality of the Baroque. It was less naturalistic, with elongated (sometimes rubbery looking) bodies in strained poses.
The Medici were expelled from Florence in 1527 by the mad monk Savonarola. Vasari traveled to Rome and Arezzo in the interim. Vasari returned to Florence when the Medici returned to ability in 1532. They would become his foremost patron.
READ: History of the Medici Dynasty
From 1532-49, Vasari spent time in Rome, where he was inspired to write The Lives. In 1546, he received an of import commission for the Palazzo della Cancellaria in Rome.
Vasari finished writing The Lives in 1547. Who knows where he found the fourth dimension to write he was so busy with commissions … Vasari dedicated his volume to to Cosimo I de' Medici, Florence's showtime G Knuckles, when information technology was published in 1550.
In 1554, Vasari took on his biggest project for Cosimo, the remodeling of the Palazzo Vecchio. Vasari would go on to renovate almost every building and church in Florence.
Vasari was highly idea of as an creative person and architect in his lifetime. Because of his Medici patronage and the success of The Lives, he clustered a considerable fortune. With it, Vasari designed, congenital, and frescoed his own house in Arezzo. (Information technology'south now a museum.) Vasari was even elected "mayor" of Arezzo.
READ: Guide To the Best Fine art in Tuscany
In 1563, along with the Cosimo I and Michelangelo, he helped to launch the University of Fine art in Florence, with 36 creative person members. The academy became a school for artists, a place for instruction and training.
It was the forerunner of the official salon that dominated painting until Monet and the Impressionists protested. The schoolhouse is yet there, part of the Accademia Gallery that houses Michelangelo's David .
Vasari died in 1574 in Florence at age 63. He was buried in a chapel that he designed in Arezzo. Vasari left his stamp on the city of Florence, equally few artists had before him.
15 Best Art Works Past Giorgio Vasari
Let'due south delve into Vasasri'south greatest works of art, compages, and literature. Though he's all-time known for The Lives, writing wasn't his day chore. He was prolific in his own correct as an artist, producing some must see masterpieces in Italia.
one. The Lives
The Lives is Vasari's greatest work and legacy. It'southward the about influential book about art ever written.
The Lives is an encyclopedic collection of all of Renaissance Italy'due south major and minor artists. The book contains a mass of factual information, anecdote, and opinion.
No one before Vasari had ever written an artist biography. In its day, The Lives served equally a guidebook to Italian art. Today, fine art historians even so use The Lives as a primary source.
Vasari was the ultimate insider artist. He knew the artists of the time personally. He was in a prime number position to watch the Renaissance unfold in the 16th century.
Without his treatise and enormous visual retentivity, the world would have little insight into Renaissance artists and skilful Renaissance gossip. Vasari became the defining chronicler of his era.
The Lives offers a group portrait of 300 years of the Italian Renaissance. Vasari starts with Cimabue in the 13th century. After Cimabue, Vasari considers the period of the early Renaissance — shaped past Donatello, Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, and Masaccio, all of whom he admired.
And so, Vasari moves on to Loftier Renaissance, dominated by the titanic trio of Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo. He ends with Michelangelo, Vasari's ofttimes-declared favorite and his friend.
Michelangelo has, past far, the longest biography in The Lives. 500 years later, those artists are still recognized as titans of Western art.
In his master work, Vasari coined the term "Renaissance," which means rebirth. By that term, he distinguished Renaissance art from prior (and inferior) "Gothic" works, a term he likewise invented. Vasari gave u.s. insight into the lives of the era'south artists and gossip near their petty rivalries and scandals.
Vasari'southward vignettes were notoriously untrustworthy. If the facts weren't juicy plenty, he'd embellish the tale. Sometimes he intentionally provided inaccurate information or repeated unproven legends.
Vasari was also famously devil-may-care with dates. But a loftier percentage of his views and opinions have stood the test of time.
Amid other tidbits in The Lives, Vasari: (i) claimed that Raphael died from too much sex; (2) identified the subject of Leonardo's Mona Lisa; (3) told u.s.a. virtually Michelangelo'south broken nose from a rival; (4) described the intense competition and squabbles for Florence Cathedral'southward dome committee; (5) explained how Michelangelo slept in his cloths and didn't bother to shower; and (vi) how young Leonardo depicted an affections so beautiful that his chief Verrocchio gave up painting.
READ: Everything To Know About Leonardo'southward Mona Lisa
The commencement edition of the book focused almost exclusively on Florence, the "Cradle of the Renaissance." Information technology ignored the ascent of the Renaissance in Venice and northern Europe.
Just Vasari published a second edition published in 1568, later on traveling throughout Italy and doing more research. In it, he corrected this omission and features artists like Titian and Durer.
The 1568 edition was besides more comprehensive and more factual, with less anecdotes. In 1598, woodcut portraits of the artists were added and the volume was republished.
2. Frescos in the Hall of Five Hundred: Palazzo Vecchio, Florence
The Palazzo Vecchio's main reception room is the Hall of the Five Hundred, called the Salone dei Cinquecento. The proper noun derived from the 500 human being associates that met there in pre-Medici Florence. The hall is the largest room in Italy built for a palace.
In the mid 16th century, Vasari lavishly remodeled the then spartan hall. He painted massive frescos depicting the The Battle of Marciano, in which Florence triumphed over rivals Pisa and Siena. In 1565, Vasari besides painted the 39 gilded ceiling panels, telling the life story of Cosimo I.
But earlier Vasari, Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned to fresco the great hall. His painting was allegedly a melting masterpiece, with Leonardo trying a new and failing fresco technique. Leonardo never finished the commission and moved to Milan.
READ: Guide To the Leonardo Trail in Milan
Fable holds that, instead of painting over Leonardo'southward unfinished piece of work, Vasari built a simulated wall over the fresco to preserve information technology. Then, he painted The Boxing of Marciano on the simulated wall. Only 15 known Leonardo's exist, making this possibility tantalizing.
Preliminary investigations suggest Leonardo's work may indeed lie hidden beyond the faux wall. But, to date, further investigation is halted. Historians are hesitant to damage Vasari'southward frescos in favor of possible Leonardo frescos.
READ: Battle of the Boxing Frescos
3. Frescos in the Apartment of the Elements: Palazzo Vecchio, Florence
On the 2nd floor of the Palazzo Vecchio are the sumptuously decorated individual rooms of the Medici. They consist of two loggias and 5 rooms — the Hall of the Elements, the Hall of Opi, the Hall of Ceres, the Hall of Jupiter, the Terrace of Juno, the Hall of Hercules, the Scrittoio di Minerva, and the Terrace of Saturn.
All the rooms are busy with allegorical frescoes. They were begun by Battista del Taso and finished past Vasari. This was Vasari'southward first (of many) commission from the Medici.
The highlight is the Room of the Elements, Sala deli Elementi, the first of 5 rooms that make up the quarters of Cosimo I. It's decorated with gorgeous mythological paintings created by Vasari and his workshop in 1556-66.
The paintings symbolize the ancient elements of air, water, fire, and earth. The main figure in each picture is an antiquarian god. For a fine view of Florence, you can stride out onto the Loggiato di Saturno in Cosimo'southward quarters.
4. The Last Judgment: Dome of Florence Cathedral, Florence
Vasari and his workshop painted the fresco of The Terminal Judgment from 1572-79 on the dome of Florence Cathedral. It was Vasari's terminal commission for the Medici. The frescos were cleaned and restored in 1996.
Covering some 3,6000 square meters, the fresco is the largest one in the globe. Originally, the architect Brunelleschi wanted his dome covered in gilt mosaics like the Florence Baptistery. But that programme was never realized.
120 years after Brunelleschi'south death, Cosimo I commissioned Vasari to fresco the dome. The Terminal Judgment is divided in to v zones. Enthroned in the centre is Christ, the judge. The various levels, separated by bands, show the other players in the drama — the elders of the apocalypse, saints, fellow member of the Medici family unit, and the damned in hell.
In their monumentality, the figures floating confronting the background of heaven are reminiscent of those of Michelangelo, who Vasari revered. Michelanglo's The Terminal Judgment in the Sistine Chapel was Vasari'south inspiration. Vasari died two years into the project. It was finished by Frederico Zuccari.
If you're climbing the dome, about 2/3 of the fashion upward is a viewing ledge at the base of the drum where yous can encounter the frescos.
READ: Complete Guide To Visiting Florence Cathedral and Climbing the Dome
5. Vasari Corridor, Florence
Built in 1564 by Vasari, the Vasari Corridor is a 1 kilometer elevated passageway in a higher place the Ponte Vecchio. Information technology'southward an ingenious majestic footpath, commissioned by Cosimo I for the marriage of his son, Francesco I, to Joan of Republic of austria.
The Vasari Corridor connected the Palazzo Vecchio (regime headquarters) to the Pitti Palace (the Medici's official residence). It served as a individual walkway for the Medici and high ranking individuals. This manner, they were condom and didn't take to deal with the riff raff of Florence. The Vasari Corridor was unique for its time.
READ: Guide To the Pitti Palace
Inside the corridor, you'll find the portrait collection of the Uffizi Gallery. There's over 1000 paintings, including works by Filippo Lippi, Rembrandt, Velazquez, and Delacroix.
The Vasari Corridor is currently closed, with a 10 1000000 euro renovation ongoing. It'south scheduled to open to the public via a special ticket in 2022. In the acting, you lot can walk in the 1000 Knuckles'south footsteps on YouTube here.
6. Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Almost of Vasari's architectural work was undertaken in Florence (although he did work on projects in Pisa, Arezzo, and Rome). Vasari would work lonely or collaborate with other architects.
Deputed by Cosimo, Vasari'southward nearly important collaboration was with Bartolomeo Ammannati. Together, they worked on the facade of the Uffizi Gallery.
Vasari's design for the edifice — calm and archetype grandeur — drew inspiration from ancient Roman compages and Michelangelos Laurentian Library and New Sacristy in the Basilica of San Lorenzo. Vasari created a highly distinctive building, which would become as allegorical of Florence as the Palazzo Vecchio and Florence Cathedral.
At the fourth dimension, the Uffizi served as the offices for the Florentine bureaucracy. The loggia of the Palazzo degli Uffizi with its unified architectural handling is the perfect case of urban planning. It functions like a public piazza.
20 years later, Vasari was instrumental in urging Cosimo to brand the Uffizi a major museum specializing in Italian art. Hither'due south my consummate guide to the magnificent Uffizi Gallery, with an overview of the must encounter masterpieces and tips for visiting.
7. Portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici: Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Painted by Vasari at just age of 22, this is a portrait of the famous Lorenzo de' Medici. It was deputed by Cosimo I de' Medici in homage to Lorenzo, dubbed Il Magnifico.
Lorenzo was the most famous ruler in the Medici dynasty. He was the most of import patron of Renaissance art, sponsoring works by Michelangelo, Botticelli, and Donatello.
READ: History of the Medici Dynasty
In Vasari's portrait, Lorenzo is wearing a blue tunic with ermine cuffs. He'southward surrounded by objects glorifying his reign. Hanging on his chugalug is a crimson purse, which was a symbol of his role as a banker to the pope.
Vasari was not a portraitist and disliked the specialty. But he strove for a likeness of Lorenzo. Lorenzo is shown pensive, humble in rather subdued colors. He looks moody and unshaven, purposes purposefully fatigued this fashion to show him equally a man of the people.
eight. Six Tuscan Poets: Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Commissioned in 1543, this Vasari group portrait was intended to laud the supremacy of Italian civilization. Information technology shows six famous poets and philosophers from 13th and 14th century Tuscany engaged in conversation. The colors are gorgeous.
Dante Alighieri, writer of The Divine Comedy, is seated facing Guido Cavalcanti, a poet famed for his beloved sonnets. Dante holds a copy of Virgil, one of the bang-up Latin poets, to remind the audience that anybody in the painting was a master of the Latin language.
To Dante's right is the humanist scholar, Francesco Petrarch. He holds a copy of his Scattered Rhymes. Between them is Giovanni Boccaccio, writer of the Decameron. To the far left are the humanist, Marsilio Ficino and the philosopher, Cristoforo Landino.
The four great poets of the Italian language wear laurel wreaths as a symbol of honor. The table is strewn with objects that are symbols of learning: a solar quadrant, celestial world, compass, terrestrial globe, and books.
9. Giorgio Vasari, St Luke Painting the Virgin: Basilica della Santissima Annunziata, Florence
This Vasari painting is based on an Italian legend. Vasari depicts St. Luke painting the Virgin and Kid. Past legend, a painting of the virgin is attributed to Saint Luke, who was believed to be the first Christian painter. The actual painting is located in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
The medieval painting is nicknamed the Savior of the People of Rome. Legend holds that it was carried by Pope Gregory throughout Rome to bulldoze out the plague in 593.
Vasari's rendition of the theme is a classic of Mannerist painting. I don't usually like Mannerism (with the exception of some beautiful Bronzinos and El Grecos). But I really similar this painting, which depicts a nigh improbable and incongruous scene.
Showtime off, of course, Saint Luke wasn't alive at the same fourth dimension of the virgin. And nosotros don't know what Luke looked like.
So Vasari painted a self portrait of himself every bit Saint Luke. Luke is supposedly show in Jesus' babyhood habitation, which seems to resemble Vasari'southward firm in Arezzo.
Luke wears a costume reminiscent of a Roman patrician and sits on a classically adorned rock stool. Luke is identified past the giant ox with peacock wings (signifying imortality) next to him. Luke wear eyeglasses as he prepares to paint the background scene.
x. Allegory of the Immaculate Conception: Santissimi Apostoli, Florence
This famous Vasari painting is the main altarpiece of the Altoviti Chapel in the Church of the Santissimi Apostoli in Florence. In his Memoirs, Vasari describes the altarpiece in particular, revealing its complex iconography. Vasari claimed that he never so "lovingly" labored over a painting.
The work depicts Mary every bit the New Eve, who remedies the evil unleashed by the showtime Eve. Mary appears quite Raphael-like and is enthroned on celestial clouds.
By her grace, the Gates of Heaven are re-opened and the Onetime Testament saints were released from Limbo. Held upwardly by angels, Mary almost descends into limbo herself. She defeats the female person serpent wrapped effectually a tree by herself.
The prototype of an independent Mary wasn't pop in the Counter Reformation. Henceforth, they required Jesus to be included in any image where something significant was happening.
Vasari's piece of work was such a success that many copies and replicas were fabricated, including by himself. The Uffizi has a small Vasari replica of the Allegory.
11. House of Giorgio Vasari, Arezzo
Art lovers should visit the Business firm of Giorgio Vasari on a Tuscany route trip. Vasari bought the business firm in 1541.
He painted frescos in half dozen rooms betwixt 1542-48. The frescos depict biblical scenes, mythological scenes, and sacred and profane allegories.
The most important room is the Room of Virtue, which Vasari frescoed as he wrote The Lives. It depicts episodes from the lives of the most famous painters of antiquity. The "Room of the Celebrities" show Vasari's portraits of his contemporaries, including portraits of Michelangelo and Andrea del Sarto.
Vasari's House likewise has the original transcript of The Lives. You'll also detect some of Vasari's mannerist style paintings and his correspondence with Michelangelo and Cosimo I de Medici.
12. Palazzo dei Cavalieri, Pisa
Vasari also worked on the beautiful Palazzo dei Cavalieri in Pisa. Formerly known as the Palazzo della Carovana, Vasari gave the palace an architectural in 1562.
The palace served as the palace of the Knights of St. Stephen. It'due south now part of Pisa's University, founded past Napoleon.
The stunning Vasari-designed facade is exquisitely frescoed with a pattern chosen "sgraffiti." The upper facade has niches with half busts of the Medici dukes. Exterior sits a statue of Cosimo I de Medici, merely to remind you that Florence conquered Pisa.
READ: Guide To the Top Attractions in Pisa
13. Frescos in the Palazzo della Cancellari, Rome
Built between 1485 and 1511, the Palazzo della Cancelleria was one of the most influential architectural projects of the 15th century. It combines elements of Renaissance architecture from Florence, Urbino, and Rome. Despite its historical significance, its architect is unknown.
In 1546, Vasari was commissioned to fresco the grand salon. The frescoes were deputed by Central Alessandro Farnese to celebrate the life of his grandfather Pope Paul Three.
The frescos feature scenes from the life of the pope. The frescos are notable for their fictive architecture and complex iconography.
Vasari finished the frescos in 100 days. The salon was thereafter dubbed the "Hall of the Hundred Days." Fable holds that Vasari bragged nigh the quick execution to his hero Michelangelo. Michelangleo tartly said "si vede" ("it shows").
xiv. Michelangelo's Tomb, Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence
Michelangelo was buried in the Basilica of Santa Croce, a Florentine church full of celebrity tombs. His fanboy, Giorgio Vasari designed the tomb.
Legend holds that Michelangelo chose the site for the tomb, so that on Judgment Day the first affair he would see was Brunelleschi's dome on Florence Cathedral.
Vasari's tomb for Michelangelo, while well significant, is static and non quite fitting for 1 of the greatest artists of all time. Information technology's an apologue of sculpture, architecture, and painting — three things at which Michelangelo excelled.
Frescos are at the elevation. There's a bust of Michelangelo, and beneath that 3 crying women representing his creative disciplines.
Michelangelo lived his life between Florence and Rome due to his commissions, about famously completing the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. He spent his concluding 30 years in Rome. When he died, his heir spirited his body out of Rome and transported it to Florence so Michelangelo could be put to rest in the city he loved most.
15. The Terminal Supper: Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence
Vasari painted his own The Terminal Supper in 1546. The beloved Vasari painting of Christ and his disciples was shockingly contemporary for its fourth dimension, a tableaux of realism. The painting was commissioned past the Benedictine nuns of the Florentine Murate Convent.
The work is massive at 8 past 21 feet. It's equanimous of v panels and a total of twenty thick poplar planks.
READ: Guide To The Last Supper Paintings of Renaissance Italy
Christ is in pale rose robes. He drapes his left arm over Saint John. A bearded Saint Peter sits on his right. Judas turns away equally darkness gathers in the room.
The painting was eventually relocated to the Castellani Chapel in the Basilica of Santa Croce in 1865. In the 1950s, it was moved to the Santa Croce museum.
The painting was severely damaged in 1966 when the Arno River flooded — a tragedy in Italian history. Vasari'due south Last Supper was underwater for 12 hours. It was covered in conservation paper. For years, restorers were loath to bear upon the painting, considering it unsalvageable.
In 2010, funded by the Getty Eye, a new team of conservators got in the act. After 9 years of restoration using cutting edge engineering science, the painting was triumphantly unveiled to the public. The impairment was less than experts feared. If Santa Croce floods over again, two winches volition automatically lift the painting in a higher place the flood line.
I hope y'all've enjoyed my guide to the works of Giorgio Vasari. You may relish these other Florence travel guides and resources:
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• Florence art bucket list
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