Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
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