Vasari
Name: Giorgio Vasari
Achievements: Best known for biographies of famous artists.
Born: July 30, 1511; Arezzo, Italy
Died: June 27, 1574; Florence, Italy (Aged 62)
Field & Discipline: Art; Architecture; Literature; Painter; Architect; Writer
Language: Italian
Father: Antonio Vasari
Mother: Maddalena dei Tacci
Siblings: Pietro; Rosa; Lucrezia; Francesca
Spouse: Nicolosa de' Bacci
Children: None
Education: Tutored
Major Work:
"Lives of the Artists"
Life & Times:
Vasari's cousin, artist [cousin was] Signorelli*, saw talent in the boy and urged his father to let him study art. When he was 13, he was sent to Florence along with two de' Medici boys, Ippolito and Alessandro, to study art under Andrea del Sarto.
Vasari also worked for a time with sculptor Baccio Bandinelli, He lived in the house of Niccolo Vespucci, a relative of explorer [knew family of] Vespucci* and also a friend of painter Jacopo Pontormo. Vasari became close friends with Pontormo's favorite pupil, Agnolo di Mariano, known as Bronzino.
He also became friendly with artist Francesco de' Rossi, later known as Salviati. Vasari and de' Rossi salvaged fragments of sculptor [a pal of] Michelangelo*'s "David" that had broken off the statue's arm during an attack on the Palazzo Vecchio in 1527. (In 1543, the pieces were riveted back in place.)
After the Sack of Rome in 1527, the Republicans took over in Florence and the 16-year-old Vasari, now considered an enemy because of his association with the Medici’s, fled. He returned briefly to Florence in 1529, but was forced to flee again when the city was besieged.
Later on, after the Medici’s were restored, Ippolito de’Medici, now a Cardinal, engaged Vasari to work for him in Rome. At the Vatican, Vasari copied antiquities and contemporary artists. In 1532 he returned to Florence with a painting of the "Entombment" which he sold to Duke Alessandro, who was so pleased he commissioned a portrait of himself.
The celebrations in Florence for Alessandro's marriage to the daughter of Emperor Charles V brought Vasari many assignments. He wrote accounts of the wedding celebrations to Italian writer [corresponded with] Aretino* in Venice. Alessandro was murdered in 1537, and Vasari fled to Arezzo.
The new bishop of Arezzo took an interest in him, and he struck up a close friendship with Miniato Pitti, a member of an important Florentine family. Pitti, who had commissioned work from Vasari as early as 1530, was a monk in the Olivetan Order. Through Pitti, Vasari became the painter for the Order throughout Italy.
From 1537-1540, Vasari spent the summers in the hills of Casentino working on paintings for the church of the Camaldoline monks. At Casentino he met Bindo Altoviti, a friend of [knew friend of] Raphael*. Altoviti commissioned Vasari to paint an altarpiece for his family chapel in Florence. The result, "Allegory of the Immaculate Conception", is thought to be one of Vasari's finest works.
In 1541 Vasari was invited by Aretino to Venice to design the sets for one of his plays. His imaginative backdrops received high acclaim, leading to more commissions, including a ceiling for Venice's Corner-Spinelli Palace. The illusionist perspective of the ceiling was to influence many Venetian artists.
Summoned back to Rome by Altoviti, Vasari painted a "Pieta" and also found another patron, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, for whom he painted "Allegory of Justice" in the heavily symbolic style then fashionable.
After working for the Olivetans in Naples, Vasari began work on one of his most significant commissions: a fresco for the great hall in the Farnese Palazzo della Cancelleria. The theme was the life of the Farnese Pope, Paul III, but Vasari managed to include the images of many of his friends in the work.
In 1543, Vasari began research for his treatise, "Lives of the Artists". The idea for this work came during a dinner party when the group agreed somebody should write a biography of Italian artists from [wrote biography of] Cimabue* to the present.
Seven years later, Vasari published the first edition, which he called "The Lives of the Most Eminent Italian Architects, Painters and Sculptors..." and dedicated it to Grand Duke [dedicated book to] Cosimo de' Medici*. It dealt with pre-Christian artists, the Middle Ages, and what Italians consided the rebirth of art in the 14th century by painters such as [wrote biography of] Brunelleschi* and [wrote biography of] Alberti*. Vasari went on to deal at length with the Renaissance in Tuscany, beginning with [wrote biography of] Giotto* and ending with [wrote biography of] Michelangelo*, the only living artist he mentioned.
Vasari became good friends with Michelangelo, who encouraged him to take up architecture. Now 43, and tired of traveling, Vasari accepted an architectural position in Florence with Duke Cosimo. Soon after settling in, he began to present designs for the remodeling of the Palazzo Vecchio, but his most important architectural work was the building of the Uffizi in Florence, begun in 1560, and the Piazza dei Cavalieri at Pisa, where he built a headquarters and church for a military order created by Cosimo to guard the coast. Vasari designed mainly in the Tuscan Mannerist style, but his work also showed the influence of Michelangelo.
In 1568 Vasari produced a second edition of his "Lives of the Artists" book which now contained biographies of living artists, including his own. One painter who got a bad review was [wrote biography of] Tintoretto*. Vasari could not understand his free brush strokes and lack of formal techniques and thought him completely undisciplined. Vasari started traveling again in 1566.
He made a three-month sweep of the Italian peninsula, stopping off in Loreto where he admired the reliefs of Andrea Sansovino on the Virgin's House. In Milan, he found Leonardo da Vinci’s "Last Supper" ruined, but discovered that a priest had made a good copy of it.
In Venice, he met [met] Titian*. In 1567, he was introduced to Pope Pius V, who became another patron. He designed a high altar for the Pope's birthplace, near Alessandria, where the Pius wished to be buried. In 1570, he was given three chapels to decorate in the Vatican.
When Pius died in 1572 Vasari returned to Florence, but the new pope, Gregory XIII summoned him back to Rome. Although he wasn't happy about being called back, Cosimo de’Medici insisted he go. He was given rooms in the Belvedere and treated as an honored guest.
He made one trip back to Florence to do the fresco for Brunelleschi's Cathedral dome.
Extra Connections: Friend of architect [a pal of] Palladio*.
Wrote about [wrote biography of] Bramante*, [wrote biography of] Perugino*, [wrote biography of] Romano* and [wrote biography of] Toscanelli*
He painted a portrait of [painted] Catherine de'Medici*
Assessment: Wrote a penetrating critique of Italian renaissance art and vivid biographies of his contemporaries in the art world
Oneliner: Giorgio Vasari, Renaissance artist and biographer
Bibliography:
- Boase, TSR, Giorgio Vasari, The Man and the Book, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1979.