An anonymous author known as the Anonimo Gaddiano , Anonimo Magliabechiano , or Anonimo Fiorentino ("the anonymous Florentine") is the author of the Codice Magliabechiano or Magliabechiano , a manuscript with 128 pages of text, probably from the 1530s and 1540s, and now in the Central National Library of Florence (Magliab. XVII, 17). It includes brief biographies and notes on the works of Italian artists, mainly those active in Florence during the Middle Ages . Among several other suggestions, the anonymous author has been suggested to be Bernardo Vecchietti (1514–1590), a politician of the court of Cosimo I . The author clearly had intimate access to the Medici court.
50-456: The manuscript dates from about 1536 to the mid 1540s and is considered a useful source for the study of the history of Italian art since it is the most comprehensive biographical source for artists before the 1550 edition of Vasari's Lives , which was being compiled over the same period. While the opening section is devoted to artists from ancient Greece, essentially reprising Pliny the Elder ,
100-492: A consistent and notorious favour of Florentines and tends to attribute to them all the new developments in Renaissance art – for example, the invention of engraving . Venetian art in particular, let alone other parts of Europe, is systematically ignored. Between his first and second editions, Vasari visited Venice and the second edition gave more attention to Venetian art (finally including Titian ) without achieving
150-594: A defining factor in the view on the Renaissance and the role of Florence and Rome in it, and as a major source of information on the lives and works of early Renaissance artists from Italy. The Vite has been translated wholly or partially into many languages, including Dutch , English , French , German , Polish , Russian and Spanish . The Vite formed a model for encyclopedias of artist biographies. Different 17th century translators became artist biographers in their own country of origin and were often called
200-527: A neutral point of view. John Symonds claimed in 1899 that, "It is clear that Vasari often wrote with carelessness, confusing dates and places, and taking no pains to verify the truth of his assertions" (in regards to Vasari's life of Nicola Pisano ), while acknowledging that, despite these shortcomings, it is one of the basic sources for information on the Renaissance in Italy . Vasari's biographies are interspersed with amusing gossip. Many of his anecdotes have
250-599: Is incorrect; Andrea died several years before Domenico. In another example, Vasari's biography of Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, whom he calls " Il Sodoma ", published only in the second edition of the Lives (1568) after Bazzi's death, condemns the artist as being immoral, bestial, and vain. Vasari dismisses Bazzi's work as lazy and offensive, despite the artist's having been named a Cavalier of the Supreme Order of Christ by Pope Leo X and having received important commissions for
300-514: Is now regarded as including many factual errors, especially when covering artists from before he was born. Vasari was a Mannerist painter who was highly regarded both as a painter and architect in his day, but rather less so in later centuries. He was effectively what would now be called the minister of culture to the Medici court in Florence , and the Lives promoted, with enduring success,
350-536: The Gaddi family (hence the "Gaddiano" name), descended from the 13th-century artist Gaddo Gaddi , and by the 16th century prominent in banking and the church. Contemporary members included Cardinals Niccolò Gaddi and Taddeo Gaddi , and the priest Giovanni Gaddi , the last a courtier in Florence at the time, and friend of Vasari and Benvenuto Cellini . It entered the collection of Antonio Magliabechi , which became
400-476: The Italian Renaissance 's most influential writing on art", and "the first important book on art history ". Vasari published the work in two editions with substantial differences between them; the first edition, two volumes, in 1550 and the second, three volumes, in 1568 (which is the one usually translated and referred to). One important change was the increased attention paid to Venetian art in
450-471: The Low Countries . Similarly, Joachim von Sandrart , author of Deutsche Akademie (1675), became known as the "German Vasari" and Antonio Palomino, author of An account of the lives and works of the most eminent Spanish painters, sculptors and architects (1724), became the "Spanish Vasari". In England, Aglionby 's Painting Illustrated from 1685 was largely based on Vasari as well. In Florence
500-715: The Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, where he and his assistants worked from 1555. Vasari also helped to organize the decoration of the Studiolo , now reassembled in the Palazzo Vecchio. In Rome, he painted frescos in the Sala Regia . Among his better-known pupils or followers are Sebastiano Flori , Bartolomeo Carducci , Mirabello Cavalori (Salincorno), Stefano Veltroni (of Monte San Savino ), and Alessandro Fortori (of Arezzo). His last major commission
550-462: The Vasari of their country. Karel Van Mander was probably the first Vasarian author with his Painting book ( Het Schilderboeck , 1604), which encompassed not only the first Dutch translation of Vasari, but also the first Dutch translation of Ovid and was accompanied by a list of Italian painters who appeared on the scene after Vasari, and the first comprehensive list of biographies of painters from
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#1732773402002600-649: The Villa Farnese and other sites. Vasari's biographies are interspersed with amusing gossip. Many of his anecdotes seem plausible, while others are assumed fictions, such as the tale of young Giotto painting a fly on the surface of a painting by Cimabue that supposedly, the older master repeatedly tried to brush away (a genre tale that echoes anecdotes told of the Greek painter Apelles ). He did carry out research archives for exact dates, as modern art historians do, and his biographies are considered more reliable in
650-423: The 1550 edition of Vasari's Lives , which was being compiled over the same period. The account of the life of Leonardo da Vinci is especially detailed, and much used by later authors. One particular point, a later addition to the manuscript, has been much discussed. This states that Leonardo painted a portrait from life of "Piero Francesco del Giocondo" (or possibly just "Francesco del Giocondo"), respectively
700-647: The Florentine Accademia e Compagnia delle Arti del Disegno , with Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici and Michelangelo as capi of the institution. Thirty-six artists were chosen as members. He died on 27 June 1574 in Florence , Grand Duchy of Tuscany , aged 62. In 1529, he visited Rome where he studied the works of Raphael and other artists of the Roman High Renaissance . Vasari's own Mannerist paintings were more admired in his lifetime than afterwards. In 1547, he completed
750-502: The Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects ( Italian : Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori ), often simply known as The Lives ( Italian : Le Vite ), is a series of artist biographies written by 16th-century Italian painter and architect Giorgio Vasari , which is considered "perhaps the most famous, and even today the most-read work of the older literature of art", "some of
800-494: The artists from the rest of Europe. For centuries, it has been the most important source of information on Early Renaissance Italian (and especially Tuscan ) painters and the attribution of their paintings. In 1899, John Addington Symonds used the Vite as one of his basic sources for the description of artists in his seven books on the Renaissance in Italy , and nowadays it is still, despite its obvious biases and shortcomings,
850-515: The arts had been in the air since the time of Alberti . Vasari's term, applied to the change in artistic styles with the work of Giotto, eventually would become the French term Renaissance (rebirth) widely applied to the era that followed. Vasari was responsible for the modern use of the term Gothic art , as well, although he only used the word Goth in association with the German style that preceded
900-410: The background, the materials and techniques of architecture, sculpture, and painting. A second preface follows, introducing the actual "Vite". Biographies, first part Biographies, second part Biographies, third part Biographies, third part (continued) There have been numerous editions and translations of the Lives over the years. Many have been abridgements due to the great length of
950-442: The basis for the biographies of many artists like Leonardo da Vinci . The Vite contains the biographies of many important Italian artists, and is also adopted as a sort of classical reference guide for their names, which are sometimes used in different ways. What follows is the complete list of artists appearing the second (1568) edition. In a few cases, different very short biographies were given in one section. The 1568 edition
1000-484: The biographies of artists were revised and implemented in the late 17th century by Filippo Baldinucci . The Vite is also important as the basis for discussions about the development of style. It influenced the view art historians had of the Early Renaissance for a long time, placing too much emphasis on the achievements of Florentine and Roman artists while ignoring those of the rest of Italy and certainly
1050-422: The case of his contemporary painters and those of the preceding generation. Modern criticism – with new materials produced by research – has revised many of his dates and facts. Vasari included a short autobiography at the end of the Lives , and added further details about himself and his family in his lives of Lazzaro Vasari and Francesco Salviati . According to the historian Richard Goldthwaite, Vasari
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#17327734020021100-598: The church of Santa Croce in Bosco Marengo ( Province of Alessandria , Piedmont ). In 1562, Vasari built the octagonal dome on the Basilica of Our Lady of Humility in Pistoia , an important example of High Renaissance architecture. In Rome, Vasari worked with Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and Bartolomeo Ammannati at Pope Julius III 's Villa Giulia . Often called "the first art historian", Vasari invented
1150-405: The circle of Andrea del Sarto and his pupils, Rosso Fiorentino and Jacopo Pontormo , where his humanist education was encouraged. He was befriended by Michelangelo , whose painting style would influence his own. Vasari enjoyed high repute during his lifetime and amassed a considerable fortune. He married Niccolosa Bacci, a member of one of the richest and most prominent families of Arezzo. He
1200-551: The core of the Florentine public library . The manuscript was forgotten about until published in 1892 by Karl Frey; altogether the manuscript has been published three times in Italian. These are the artists covered, in the order of their listing, which is broadly chronological. The transcript edited by Frey is fully available online. Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects The Lives of
1250-516: The cultural change. The term was adopted thereafter in historiography and is still in use today. Vasari was born prematurely on 30 July 1511 in Arezzo , Tuscany . Recommended at an early age by his cousin Luca Signorelli , he became a pupil of Guglielmo da Marsiglia , a skillful painter of stained glass . Sent to Florence at the age of sixteen by Cardinal Silvio Passerini , he joined
1300-447: The end of his Vite , and adds further details about himself and his family in his lives of Lazzaro Vasari and Francesco de' Rossi . Vasari's Vite has been described as "by far the most influential single text for the history of Renaissance art" and "the most important work of Renaissance biography of artists". Its influence is situated mainly in three domains: as an example for contemporary and later biographers and art historians, as
1350-557: The fact that it remained in print and in demand through the nineteenth century." The most recent new English translation is the abridged translation by Peter and Julia Conaway Bondanella , published in the Oxford World's Classics series in 1991. Italian English Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari ( / v ə ˈ s ɑːr i / , US also /- ˈ z ɑːr -, v ɑː ˈ z ɑːr i / ; Italian: [ˈdʒordʒo vaˈzaːri] ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574)
1400-477: The first Italian art historian, Vasari initiated the genre of an encyclopedia of artistic biographies that continues today. Vasari's work was first published in 1550 by Lorenzo Torrentino in Florence , and dedicated to Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany . It included a valuable treatise on the technical methods employed in the arts. It was partly rewritten and enlarged in 1568 and provided with woodcut portraits of artists (some conjectural). The work has
1450-467: The genre of the encyclopedia of artistic biographies with his Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori ( Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects ). This work was first published in 1550 and dedicated to Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici . Vasari introduced the term "Rinascita" (rebirth in Italian) in printed works – although an awareness of an ongoing "rebirth" in
1500-685: The hall of the chancery in Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome with frescoes that received the name Sala dei Cento Giorni . He was regularly employed by members of the Medici family in Florence and Rome. He also worked in Naples (for example on the Vasari Sacristy ), Arezzo, and other places. Many of his paintings still exist, the most important being on the wall and ceiling of the Sala di Cosimo I in
1550-557: The idea of Florentine superiority in the visual arts . Vasari designed the Tomb of Michelangelo , his hero, in the Basilica of Santa Croce , Florence that was completed in 1578. Based on Vasari's text in print about Giotto 's new manner of painting as a rinascita (rebirth), author Jules Michelet in his Histoire de France (1835) suggested the adoption of Vasari's concept, using the term Renaissance (rebirth, in French) to distinguish
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1600-497: The invention of engraving . Venetian art in particular (along with arts from other parts of Europe), is ignored systematically in the first edition. Between his first and second editions, Vasari visited Venice and while the second edition gave more attention to Venetian art (finally including Titian ), it did so without achieving a neutral point of view. Many inaccuracies exist within his Lives . For example, Vasari writes that Andrea del Castagno killed Domenico Veneziano , which
1650-623: The medieval churches of Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce . In both buildings, he removed the original rood screen and loft, and remodeled the retro- choirs in the Mannerist taste of his time. In Santa Croce, he produced the painting of The Adoration of the Magi commissioned by Pope Pius V in 1566 and completed in February 1567. It was restored recently, before being exhibited in 2011 in Rome and Naples. Eventually, it will be returned to
1700-400: The most significant part is dedicated to Florentine artists from Cimabue to Michelangelo. The entries for artists concentrate on lists of works, and lack the full biographical ambition of Vasari. The manuscript, which now appears to be incomplete, is considered a particularly useful source for the study of the history of Italian art since it is the most comprehensive biographical source before
1750-404: The original. The first English-language translation by Eliza Foster (as "Mrs. Jonathan Foster") was published by Henry George Bohn in 1850-51, with careful and abundant annotations. According to professor Patricia Rubin of New York University , "her translation of Vasari brought the Lives to a wide English-language readership for the first time. Its very real value in doing so is proven by
1800-604: The other's work. Annotations in the MS include notes to ask Vasari for further details, and it is possible that a satirical portrait at the end of the MS records the author's bitterness when he realized that Vasari's publication would eclipse his own efforts, or had already done so. Like Vasari, the author had access to a version of the material known from the somewhat earlier manuscript of Antonio Billi , from about 1515, which may have been circulated among Florentine art lovers in various redactions. Bernardo Vecchietti, one possible author,
1850-402: The painters of his own generation and the immediately preceding one. Modern criticism—with all the new materials opened up by research—has corrected many of his traditional dates and attributions. The work is widely considered a classic even today, though it is widely agreed that it must be supplemented by modern scientific research. Vasari includes a forty-two-page sketch of his own biography at
1900-409: The passages where they are mentioned in the text. All these indexes are features, that facilitate using the book, and are still a model for today's art historical publications. Hereafter an almost 40 pages long lettera by Florentine historian Giovanni Battista Adriani to Vasari on the history of art is printed. The principal part of the volume begins with a preface, followed by an introduction into
1950-428: The rebirth, which he identified as "barbaric". The Lives also included a novel treatise on the technical methods employed in the arts. The book was partly rewritten and extended in 1568, with the addition of woodcut portraits of artists (some conjectural). The work shows a consistent and notorious bias in favour of Florentines and tends to attribute to them all the developments in Renaissance art – for example,
2000-422: The ring of truth, although likely inventions. Others are generic fictions, such as the tale of young Giotto painting a fly on the surface of a painting by Cimabue that the older master repeatedly tried to brush away, a genre tale that echoes anecdotes told of the Greek painter Apelles . He did not research archives for exact dates, as modern art historians do, and naturally his biographies are most dependable for
2050-691: The riverside environment. In Florence, Vasari also designed the long passage, now called Vasari Corridor, which connects the Uffizi with the Palazzo Pitti on the other side of the river. The corridor passes alongside the River Arno on an arcade, crosses the Ponte Vecchio , and winds around the exterior of several buildings. It was once the location of the Mercado de Vecchio. He renovated
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2100-424: The second edition, even though Vasari still was, and has ever since been, criticised for an excessive emphasis on the art of his native Florence . The writer Paolo Giovio expressed his desire to compose a treatise on contemporary artists at a party in the house of Cardinal Farnese , who asked Vasari to provide Giovio with as much relevant information as possible. Giovio instead yielded the project to Vasari. As
2150-576: The son and the husband of Lisa del Giocondo , usually considered the sitter for the Mona Lisa . Frank Zöllner argues that the author of the note simply made a mistake, and was referring to the Mona Lisa . In general, much of the information is the same as in Vasari's Lives , though there are also distinct differences. It is clear the two authors knew each other, but not clear that either had read
2200-597: The vista at the far end of its long narrow courtyard. It is a unique piece of urban planning that functions as a public piazza, and which, if considered as a short street, is unique as a Renaissance street with a unified architectural treatment. The view of the Loggia from the Arno reveals that, with the Vasari Corridor , it is one of the very few structures lining the river that is open to the river and appears to embrace
2250-642: Was a vast The Last Judgement fresco on the ceiling of the cupola of the Florence Cathedral that he began in 1572 with the assistance of the Bolognese painter Lorenzo Sabatini . Unfinished at the time of Vasari's death, it was completed by Federico Zuccari . Aside from his career as a painter, Vasari was successful as an architect. His loggia of the Palazzo degli Uffizi by the Arno opens up
2300-407: Was an Italian Renaissance painter , architect, art historian and biographer, who is best known for his work Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects , considered the ideological foundation of all art-historical writing, and still much cited in modern biographies of the many Italian Renaissance artists he covers, including Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo , although he
2350-625: Was made Knight of the Golden Spur by the Pope. He was elected to the municipal council of his native town and finally, rose to the supreme office of gonfaloniere . He built a fine house in Arezzo in 1547 and decorated its walls and vaults with paintings. It is now a museum in his honour named the Casa Vasari , whilst his residence in Florence is also preserved. In 1563, he helped found
2400-476: Was one of the earliest authors to use the term "competition" (or "concorrenza" in Italian) in its economic sense. He used it repeatedly, and stressed the concept in his introduction to the life of Pietro Perugino , in explaining the reasons for Florentine artistic preeminence. In Vasari's view, Florentine artists excelled because they were hungry, and they were hungry because their fierce competition amongst themselves for commissions kept them so. Competition, he said,
2450-485: Was published in three volumes. Vasari divided the biographies into three parts. Parts I and II are contained in the first volume. Part III is presented in the two other volumes. The first volume starts with a renewed dedication to Cosimo I de' Medici , followed by an additional one to Pope Pius V . The volume contains an index of names and objects mentioned, and subsequently a list of illustrations, and finally an index of places and their buildings also with references to
2500-490: Was the son of a rich cloth merchant and would only have been in his early twenties when he compiled the manuscript in the early 1540s. He was later a patron of the sculptor Giambologna , and helped Duke Cosimo organize his artistic projects, in 1572 provoking bitter complaints by Vasari, surviving in a letter to Vincenzo Borghini (another figure suggested as the Anonimo Gaddiano ). The manuscript later belonged to
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