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Vies des artistes : Vies des plus excellents peintres, sculpteurs et architectes
Premier ouvrage d'historiographie artistique de l'Occident moderne, les Vies des peintres en demeurent un de ses chefs d'uvre. Depuis cinq siècles, il contribue à la séduction persistante du goût occidental pour la Renaissance italienne, toscane en particulier. Suivant une pratique littéraire traditionnelle, le recueil se compose dune suite de biographies : il commence au 13e siècle avec Cimabue et Giotto, étudie tous les grands peintres, architectes et sculpteurs de la Renaissance, Masaccio, Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Léonard de Vinci, Raphaël, Bramante, et apporte une mine dinformation sur la vie de ses grands contemporains, Michel-Ange et Titien. Ecrites dans un style alerte, émaillées de multiples anecdotes, ces Vies sont encore aujourdhui linstrument idéal pour connaître la Renaissance artistique italienne et faire revivre les grandes personnalités qui lont forgée. Léopold Leclanché publia à Paris en 1841-1842 la première traduction française dont l'essentiel est repris dans ce volume, accompagné d'un léger appareil de notes qui aide à identifier les oeuvres survivantes. Louvrage est présenté et la traduction révisée par Véronique Gerard Powell, qui enseigne lhistoire de lart à luniversité de Paris IV.
- GenresArt
504 pages, Paperback
First published February 7, 2007
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About the author
Giorgio Vasari
1,023 books153 followersGiorgio Vasari was an Italian painter and architect, known for his famous biographies of Italian artists.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 8, 2023
Vasari Giorgio
‘Vie des Artistes’ (first published in 1550)
By Giorgio Vasari (1511 – 1574)
Giorgio Vasari was an Italian painter, architect, and author. This edition is a selection of a French translation of 34 from a total of Vasari’s original 189 Italian original biographies of ‘The lives of the most excellent artists of the Italian Renaissance.’
To situate The Italian Renaissance in time, here are some historical highlights: Literature: Alighieri Dante (1306) Petrarch (1304/74), Boccaccio (1313/75), Montaigne (1533 – 1592), Gutenberg invented printing in around 1450, Columbus discovered America in 1492, Galileo’s astronomy (1564 – 1642).
These are centuries of innovation and discovery, exceptional progress of human evolution.
Vasari’s biographies span over three hundred years and include many generations of artists, mainly painters.
It starts with the life of ‘Cimabue’ (1240/1302) and ends with ‘Le Bronzino’ (1503/72) in Volume 2. To mention just a few of the most famous: Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Correggio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian. The author knew and was befriended by many of his contemporary artists.
Vasari’s writing style is elegant and rich with colourful details of the lives that make reading pleasant; family origins, education, skills, anecdotes, encounters, evolution in style, as well as of the works they produced and where they could be found at Vasari’s time.
Many of the artists came from poor families, illiterate and without formal education; at first, it seems a mystery how they could imagine scenes from the religious books; rare manuscripts were owned and read-only by educated clergy.
It can only be by listening to the preaching’s of the clerics and their inspirations that young artists would be guided to produce the colourful artworks as they came to their mind and imagination.
In the first century of the Renaissance, almost all were on religious subjects and events. Orders and remunerations came from the church. The paintings were displayed in churches, chapels, and monasteries.
Colourful paintings became a powerful media tool for the religious education of an uneducated population.
The Christians came to admire the human look of the first Saints and martyrs of their religion. They would be hoping for the forgiveness of their sins by praying and dropping their coins into the nearby alms box.
Vasari points out that most paintings in churches were rewarded over time many thousand times over the amount paid to the artists.
The economic incentive could well be at the origin of the Italian Renaissance.
In later generations, the artwork became more diverse with paintings on historical and literary subjects and portraits of ladies and gentlemen from the ruling classes and wealthy individuals.
In the beginning, an artist would be seen as an artisan or craftsman.
That changed with prominent geniuses, like Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo and a few others who had gained access to kings and popes and aristocrats.
Some of these artists had cumulated simultaneously works of painting, sculpture and architecture and brilliant scientific knowledge in many areas.
Many of these men lived like princes and cumulated great wealth.
The original epicentre of the rebirth of art was Florence. From there it spread to Sienna, Messina, Venice, Bologna and Rome.
As the political and economic centre was Rome Artists went to Rome to learn from the historical architecture and relics of Greek and Roman culture.
Many were appointed by the succeeding Popes to build and decorate their palaces and chapels with ever more grandiose profusion.
Vasari’s work is the first history of art in modern Europe and should not be missed by any readers with a passion for these subjects.
‘Vie des Artistes’ (first published in 1550)
By Giorgio Vasari (1511 – 1574)
Giorgio Vasari was an Italian painter, architect, and author. This edition is a selection of a French translation of 34 from a total of Vasari’s original 189 Italian original biographies of ‘The lives of the most excellent artists of the Italian Renaissance.’
To situate The Italian Renaissance in time, here are some historical highlights: Literature: Alighieri Dante (1306) Petrarch (1304/74), Boccaccio (1313/75), Montaigne (1533 – 1592), Gutenberg invented printing in around 1450, Columbus discovered America in 1492, Galileo’s astronomy (1564 – 1642).
These are centuries of innovation and discovery, exceptional progress of human evolution.
Vasari’s biographies span over three hundred years and include many generations of artists, mainly painters.
It starts with the life of ‘Cimabue’ (1240/1302) and ends with ‘Le Bronzino’ (1503/72) in Volume 2. To mention just a few of the most famous: Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Correggio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian. The author knew and was befriended by many of his contemporary artists.
Vasari’s writing style is elegant and rich with colourful details of the lives that make reading pleasant; family origins, education, skills, anecdotes, encounters, evolution in style, as well as of the works they produced and where they could be found at Vasari’s time.
Many of the artists came from poor families, illiterate and without formal education; at first, it seems a mystery how they could imagine scenes from the religious books; rare manuscripts were owned and read-only by educated clergy.
It can only be by listening to the preaching’s of the clerics and their inspirations that young artists would be guided to produce the colourful artworks as they came to their mind and imagination.
In the first century of the Renaissance, almost all were on religious subjects and events. Orders and remunerations came from the church. The paintings were displayed in churches, chapels, and monasteries.
Colourful paintings became a powerful media tool for the religious education of an uneducated population.
The Christians came to admire the human look of the first Saints and martyrs of their religion. They would be hoping for the forgiveness of their sins by praying and dropping their coins into the nearby alms box.
Vasari points out that most paintings in churches were rewarded over time many thousand times over the amount paid to the artists.
The economic incentive could well be at the origin of the Italian Renaissance.
In later generations, the artwork became more diverse with paintings on historical and literary subjects and portraits of ladies and gentlemen from the ruling classes and wealthy individuals.
In the beginning, an artist would be seen as an artisan or craftsman.
That changed with prominent geniuses, like Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo and a few others who had gained access to kings and popes and aristocrats.
Some of these artists had cumulated simultaneously works of painting, sculpture and architecture and brilliant scientific knowledge in many areas.
Many of these men lived like princes and cumulated great wealth.
The original epicentre of the rebirth of art was Florence. From there it spread to Sienna, Messina, Venice, Bologna and Rome.
As the political and economic centre was Rome Artists went to Rome to learn from the historical architecture and relics of Greek and Roman culture.
Many were appointed by the succeeding Popes to build and decorate their palaces and chapels with ever more grandiose profusion.
Vasari’s work is the first history of art in modern Europe and should not be missed by any readers with a passion for these subjects.
October 8, 2023
La première encyclopédie d’artistes. Une référence malgré les inexactitudes nombreuses (corrigées en annexe) et un style narratif chronologique souvent difficile à lire.
January 30, 2026
Indispensable pour comprendre les artistes de la renaissance Italienne
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews