Giorgio Vasari: Art and History

by Patricia Lee Rubin

Vasari's Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects are and always have been central texts for the study of the Italian Renaissance. They can and should be read in many ways. Since their publication in the mid-sixteenth century, they have been a source of both information and pleasure. Their immediacy after more than four hundred years is a measure of Vasari's success. He wished the artists of his day, himself included, to be famous. He made the association of artistry and genius, of renaissance and the arts so familiar that they now seem inevitable. In this book Patricia Rubin argues that both the inevitability and the immediacy should be questioned. To read Vasari without historical perspective results in a limited and distorted view of The Lives.
Rubin shows that Vasari had distinct ideas about the nature of his task as a biographer, about the importance of interpretation, judgment, and example - about the historian's art. Vasari's principles and practices as a writer are examined here, as are their sources in Vasari's experiences as an artist.

Genres: Art, Art History

360 pages, Hardcover

First published April 26, 1995

Reviews

[Martin Ridgway · Rating 5 out of 5]

A clear account, if lengthy because of some extended case studies, of what "The Lives" is actually saying. This covers the intellectual ideas moving around at the time, new and those inherited [interpreted] from classical authors; Vasari's own motivations that influenced his approach and chapter structure; and the views of art in Vasari's own time.
The extended case studies draw from each of Vasari's three ages of painting: Giotto, Donatello, and Raphael and show how their contents were influenced by that division into three ages, inevitable comparisons with Michaelangelo's own works (and, to a lesser extent, Vasari's own), by the lessons Vasari wished to impart, and what works Vasari had actually seen.
There's also coverage of the reasons for the differences between the 1550 and 1568 editions.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book - I don't know why it is out of print. I am not that big of a fan of the Renaissance but this was good. Plus, someone should love this guy for his artwork too.