Giorgio Vasari

The painter and architect Giorgio Vasari was a pupil of Michelangelo's who worked mainly in Florence and Rome, but he is more famous for his "Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects". This is the second volume of his work, translated by Gaston de Vere.

Available as two separate volumes or as a bo xed set, this 16th century work is a distinctive blend of bi ography and criticism which effectively founded the study of art history and remains one of its greatest monuments '

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.

Beginning with Cimabue and Giotto in the thirteenth century, Vasari traces the development of Italian art across three centuries to the golden epoch of Leonardo and Michelangelo. Great men, and their immortal works, are brought vividly to life, as Vasari depicts the young Giotto scratching his first drawings on stone; Donatello gazing at Brunelleschi's crucifix; and Michelangelo's painstaking work on the Sistine Chapel, harassed by the impatient Pope Julius II. The Lives also convey much about Vasari himself and his outstanding abilities as a critic inspired by his passion for art.

Italienaren Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) var verksam som arkitekt och målare, han grundade konstakademin Accademia del disegno i Florens och han betraktas som den förste konsthistorikern. Den första upplagan av Le vite de’ più eccelenti architetti, pittori e scultori italiani, utgavs år 1550. Det är en samling biografier över italienska konstnärer från 1200-talet till Vasaris egen tid. Det dröjde till åren 1926–1930 innan verket blev tillgängligt på svenska. Då publicerades ett urval med titeln ”Berömda renässanskonstnärers liv”.