VASARI, Giorgio
Biography
Vasari, Giorgio (1511-74), Italian writer, painter,
and architect, best known for his book on the lives of major Italian Renaissance
artists. Vasari was born on July 30, 1511, in Arezzo. Trained in art as
a child, he went to Florence, where he worked in the studio of Andrea del
Sarto and won the patronage of the Medici family. Among Vasari's major
surviving paintings are murals in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, and the
Vatican in Rome. As an architect Vasari was a follower of his brilliant
contemporary Michelangelo. Among the important buildings he designed are
the Palazzo degli Uffizi in Florence, now a museum, and a number of palaces
and churches in Pisa and Arezzo. It is as a writer, however, that he is
most famous. His Lives of the Artists (1550, revised 1568; trans. 1912-14,
10 vol.), one of the earliest works on art written by an artist of merit,
is a primary source of information about the artists of the Italian Renaissance.
The revised edition includes his autobiography in addition to the lives
of Michelangelo and other major painters of the time. Vasari's book offers
his personal evaluation of the works of these artists, as well as discussions
on the state of the arts. His easy, natural writing style helped to make
his book one of the most enduring of art histories. He died in Florence
on June 27, 1574.
"Vasari, Giorgio," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1994
Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation.
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