Giorgio Vasari Biography and List of Works

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)

Vite de' più eccellenti Architetti, Pittori, et Scultori Italiani..., (1550)
Ragionamenti, (1588)
Capricci e aneddoti di artisti, (1859)
Vasari on Technique, (1960)
Le opere..., (1973)
Arezzo nelle due edizioni delle Vite del Vasari, (1974)
Vasari on Theatre, (1990)