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Lives of the Artists

Volume 1

Author Giorgio Vasari
Introduction by George Bull
Translated by George Bull
Paperback
$17.00 US
Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Classics
On sale Mar 01, 1988 | 480 Pages | 9780140445008
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In his Lives of the Artists of the Italian Renaissance, Vasari demonstrated a literary talent that outshone even his outstanding abilities as a painter and architect. Through character sketches and anecdotes he depicts Piero di Cosimo shut away in his derelict house, living only to paint; Giulio Romano's startling painting of Jove striking down the giants; and his friend Francesco Salviati, whose biography also tells us much about Vasari's own early career. Vasari's original and soaring vision plus his acute aesthetic judgements have made him one of the most influential art historians of all time.

Introduction
Vasari's Lives
Vasari and the Renaissance Artist
Translator's Note
The Lives
Preface to the Lives
Cimabue
Giotto

Preface to Part Two
Uccello
Ghiberti
Masaccio
Brunelleschi
Donatello
Piero della Francesca
Fra Angelico
Alberti
Fra Filippo Lippi
Botticelli
Verrocchio
Mantegna

Preface to Part Three
Leonardo da Vinci
Giorgione
Correggio
Raphael
Michelangelo
Titian
Notes on the Artists
Further Reading

Giorgio Vasari was born in 1511 at Arezzo in Tuscany. While still a boy he was introduced to Cardinal Silvio Passerini who put him to study in Florence with Michelangelo—who later became a close friend—then with Andrea del Sarto. He left Florence when his patron, Duke Alessandro, was assassinated, and wandered around Italy filling his notebooks with sketches; it was during this period that he conceived the idea of the Lives. By then, in his thirties, Vasari was a highly successful painter and when his Lives were published they were received enthusiastically. He returned to Florence in 1555 to serve Duke Cosimo who appointed him architect of the Palazzo Vecchio. After a grand tour of Italian towns he published the revised and enlarged edition of his Lives in 1568. Vasari spent the rest of his life in a glow of self-satisfaction and public recognition, and in 1571 he was knighted by Pope Pius V. He died in 1574. View titles by Giorgio Vasari

About

In his Lives of the Artists of the Italian Renaissance, Vasari demonstrated a literary talent that outshone even his outstanding abilities as a painter and architect. Through character sketches and anecdotes he depicts Piero di Cosimo shut away in his derelict house, living only to paint; Giulio Romano's startling painting of Jove striking down the giants; and his friend Francesco Salviati, whose biography also tells us much about Vasari's own early career. Vasari's original and soaring vision plus his acute aesthetic judgements have made him one of the most influential art historians of all time.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Vasari's Lives
Vasari and the Renaissance Artist
Translator's Note
The Lives
Preface to the Lives
Cimabue
Giotto

Preface to Part Two
Uccello
Ghiberti
Masaccio
Brunelleschi
Donatello
Piero della Francesca
Fra Angelico
Alberti
Fra Filippo Lippi
Botticelli
Verrocchio
Mantegna

Preface to Part Three
Leonardo da Vinci
Giorgione
Correggio
Raphael
Michelangelo
Titian
Notes on the Artists
Further Reading

Author

Giorgio Vasari was born in 1511 at Arezzo in Tuscany. While still a boy he was introduced to Cardinal Silvio Passerini who put him to study in Florence with Michelangelo—who later became a close friend—then with Andrea del Sarto. He left Florence when his patron, Duke Alessandro, was assassinated, and wandered around Italy filling his notebooks with sketches; it was during this period that he conceived the idea of the Lives. By then, in his thirties, Vasari was a highly successful painter and when his Lives were published they were received enthusiastically. He returned to Florence in 1555 to serve Duke Cosimo who appointed him architect of the Palazzo Vecchio. After a grand tour of Italian towns he published the revised and enlarged edition of his Lives in 1568. Vasari spent the rest of his life in a glow of self-satisfaction and public recognition, and in 1571 he was knighted by Pope Pius V. He died in 1574. View titles by Giorgio Vasari

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