Giorgio di Antonio Vasari

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Born: 1511

Died: 1574

Summary of Giorgio di Antonio Vasari

By 1530, Giorgio di Antonio Vasari had already established himself as a key figure in the development of Italian Renaissance art, despite missing the so-called “High Renaissance” of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. For his frescos and his use of the Mannerism style to amplify biblical storey, he is well-regarded as an architect and painter. The majority of experts, on the other hand, think that his greatest contribution to Western art history was not made via a piece of art at all, but rather through a tome: The Lives of the Most Eminent Painters. Vasari originally established the now recognised art historical practise of employing biological models to provide meaning to individual pieces of art in The Lives (as it has come to be called). To paraphrase Andrew Ladis, Vasari made Michelangelo “the triumphant saviour of the arts, a figure of light” as he phrased it. According to The Lives, Vasari’s age was the “rebirth” of art following the collapse of Rome, and the works of proto-Renaissance artist Giotto were the start of art’s journey to aesthetic greatness.

The first thing to know about Vasari is that he was a thrifty businessman. As a result, he began to see how “artistic influence” may help raise the perceived worth of a piece of art. As a result of his position, painters – or at least certain particular artists – began to enjoy a higher social prestige than that of regular artisans. One’s prospects of fame and financial stability increase if they can pass themselves off as an artist. In this astonishing message to his former coworkers and superiors, he summed up his status as follows: “Once upon a time, I was as poor as the rest of you, but now days, I have at least three thousand scudi. Even if you thought I was uncomfortable (as a painter), the religious orders see me as a capable teacher. I used to serve you, but now I have a personal aide who takes care of my horse. Once upon a time, I wore rags, like the impoverished artists who wore them, but now, I wear velvet. I used to go on foot, but nowadays I prefer to ride a horse.”

Vasari made a name for himself early on thanks to the commissioned portraits he painted. Pastel colours were his go-to choice for bringing out the humanist and compassionate side of his illustrious subjects. As a memento mori, he would include symbols in the photo frame that reflected the person’s gravity and rank.

The ideas of tonal harmony had been the focus of Vasari’s portrait work, therefore he moved to Mannerism in his religious art. More artifice was used to create an air of great elegance and increased drama within the image storey in these compositions: strange hues, anomalies in scale and exaggerations of it.

To put it another way, Vasari gave birth to a popular art history in his two volumes of The Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, And Architects (1550; 1568). Vasari held the belief that the core of Renaissance art could be discovered by studying the lives and times of the Florentine and Venetian artists. The book adhered to a well-established biographical writing style, but Vasari added a fresh anecdotal flavour to the proceedings by making moral judgments about the artists’ actions. This book has received much criticism for its lack of objectivity and the abundance of factual flaws and embellishments it contains. A fundamental truth of art and literature is that the extraordinary actions of divinely talented persons may be used to shed light on the past. This idealised “bourgeois” view of art history has been challenged by a large number of radicals and revisionists who have written treatises, but the concept of a “biographical legend” is what has done most to raise appreciation for art across all social strata.

Childhood

Giorgio Vasari, the oldest of six children, was born in Tuscany’s Arezzo district in 1511 to a middle-class family. Giorgio inherited his creative tendencies from many generations of family members. His great-grandfather Lazzaro Vasari was a multi-talented artist who worked as a potter, a saddle maker, a miniature painter, and, subsequently, a fresco painter under the guidance of Piero della Francesco. Giorgio Vasari, Vasari’s great-grandfather, was a potter like Antonio, but less of an all-arounder. Della Francesco’s lectures and perspective drawing were particularly important to Vasari’s great uncle Luca Signorelli. Giorgio was, in fact, a sickly youngster who suffered from regular nosebleeds (and possibly severe eczema). Vasari would relate how Signorelli tried a folk treatment to stop his nosebleeds by touching “a piece of red jasper to my neck with infinite tenderness.” Vasari would repeat the incident.

Vasari’s early education was “uncustomarily rich in classical studies,” according to academic Leon Satkowski, which would later reinforce the artist’s support for the Classical foundations of the Italian Renaissance. As a result of Arezzo’s emphasis on Latin proficiency, Vasari was able to memorise whole portions from Virgil’s Aeneid by the age of twelve. Vasari also studied sketching skills from French craftsmen, stained glass artist, and panel painter Guillaume de Marcillat while in Arezzo. Although Vasari came from a long family of craftsmen and had an excellent early education, he still required a relocation from Pisa to Florence to fully develop his knowledge of art and architecture.

Early Life

Vasari left Arezzo in 1524 to work as a Florentine apprentice after completing his studies at Arezzo. As a result of Vasari’s familial links to the Medici family, an Italian financial and political dynasty that was at that time the most powerful patron of art, an opportunity emerged for him to work on the project. Cardinal of Cortona Silvio Passerini, papal legate to Florence and teacher to Medici heirs Ippolito and Alessandro, was a supporter of Vasari as well. It was during Passerini’s visit to Arezzo in 1523 that Cardinal Farnese offered the young Vasari an apprenticeship after being inspired by the young man’s recitation of the Aeneid and impressed by the potential he showed in his drawings.

Upon arriving in Florence, Vasari attended the Medici family’s school and apprenticed under Michelangelo Buonarroti. Despite the short length of Vasari’s time with Michelangelo, the revered artist was so impressed by the young pupil’s brilliance that he helped find a position for Vasari in the studio of Andrea del Sarto in 1525. Vasari preferred Michelangelo’s instruction and found Lucrezia del Sarto’s intervention in the studio’s working atmosphere to be a source of irritation. Sculptor Baccio Bandinelli’s studio was Vasari’s next stop after leaving del Sarto’s. Vasari had grown to dislike Bandinelli at this point (and who he vilified in the 2nd edition of The Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects).

Vasari’s father died of the plague in 1527. Having to take control of the family’s finances, the 16-year-old quickly learnt to be precise in his bookkeeping. Even though it was a burden he didn’t want, the experience made him appreciate the financial stability that being an artist might provide. When it came to establishing oneself as an artist of note, Vasari surrounded himself with notable writers, architects, and painters. He also had a keen eye for finding wealthy clients, according to Satkowski.

Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici invited Vasari, his Florentine friend Francesco Salviati, and the rest of the Medici posse to Rome in 1531, after seeing Vasari as a young man at school. During this period in Rome, Vasari saw it as his golden era, when he and his colleagues would spend their days sketching and studying Roman ruins and artefacts, as well as the palaces, monuments, and sculptures of the Vatican, including those by Raphael and Michelangelo. In the next year, the 21-year-old Vasari joined the Florentine painters’ guild and played an important role in raising the guild’s renown.

Mid Life

Scholar Leon Satkowski paints a portrait of Vasari as a narcissist in his biography. When it came to his clients’ political objectives, he was “loyal, hard-working, and totally committed to the political aspirations of his patrons.” On the other hand, his “obsequious personality” “did not make him universally popular” as the article noted. As “confident,” “proud,” and “hypersensitive to criticism,” Vasari might be all of these things at once. He had a temper that “bordered on paranoia.” at times. When all of these “qualities” are taken into consideration, he has amazing business acumen.

Vasari worked for the Medici family for a long time, earning money for his family and for himself. The Medici family, for example, supported one of Vasari’s sister’s dowries. When Alessandro de’ Medici paid Vasari $400 for his work and also “assigned him the revenue from fines levelled at artists who failed to fulfil their commissions, a further three hundred ducats a year” Vasari was 25 and already a financial success storey.

According to some, Vasari was more of an architect than an artist. Vasari, on the other hand, “lacked conventional training in architecture and came to it relatively late in his distinguished career.” according to Satkowski.. An early exposure to architectural imagery and Vitruvius’ work, which was translated into Italian vernacular in 1521, would have piqued his interest in architecture. His training as a painter and Classical background also provided him with more exposure to architectural imagery and Vitruvius. Vasari himself claims that he didn’t begin serious study of building until he was in his thirties (about 1536). Vasari’s constructions are notable for their wide range of architectural styles, meanings, and architectural types. To Satkowski, he created “virtuoso solutions to the complexities posed by their urban sites.” by emphasising symbols and intellectual concepts in his buildings.

Late Life

Vasari collaborated with his friend Vincenzo Borghini and local experts on The Lives of the Most Eminent Sculptors, Painters, and Architects, which was published in 1550. With its many faults, the poem helped to define Renaissance ideology: the artistic journey out of Medieval times and back to Classical principles. It became a foundational work in art history and the division of the Renaissance into several eras. It was approximately 1545 that Vasari first envisioned The Lives of the Most Eminent Sculptors and Painters as well as Architects, drawing influence from Plutarch’s Parallel Lives (100 AD), which contrasted Greek and Roman important persons, and Vitruvius’ Ten Books of Architecture (30-15 BC). There were plans for a Florentine art school to be built on the Lives. Vasari produced a revised edition of The Lives in 1568, giving Venetian painters (such as Titian) their due position in the Renaissance. It was Vasari’s goal that his first work would get him an invitation to Duke Cosimo de’ Medici’s court, but he would not receive that distinction until 1554.

Vasari was an easy target for scepticism and derision due to his temperamental nature. There were rumours about Satkowski’s “insalubrious habits,” and financial irresponsibility around the time of The Lives’ initial publication, according to Satkowski himself. Vasari’s career was put in jeopardy by these allegations, which raised questions about his trustworthiness and moral suitability for the first time, regardless of their veracity. Vasari wanted to bolster his public image to keep his lucrative contracts, so he married Nicolosa Bacci, the daughter of a famous Arezzo pharmacist, in 1550, despite being “psychologically ill-prepared” and counselled against marriage by his colleagues. Vasari had an extramarital relationship with Nicolosa’s sister Maddalena, through which he produced two children. In reality, he married Nicolosa not long after Maddalena died. Despite the sceptics, Vasari loved his wife and regretted that they had no children despite their frequent separation.

Upon being admitted to Duke Cosimo’s court (in 1554), Vasari started his architectural career in earnest. He planned and built several structures and city plans for the Duke as well as the Pope. Aside from interior remodelling of churches, the Council of Trent instructed him to rebuild Florentine’s Gothic Church of Santa Maria Novella so that its congregation would be better able to view and hear the ceremonies. Additionally, Vasari was tasked with creating the Palazzo della Signoria in Florence, which featured Cosimo’s private quarters, his assembly chambers, and the Uffizi’s offices for his administrators, all of which were designed, rebuilt, and organised by Vasari himself. Duke Cosimo eventually approved the founding of the Accademia e Compagnia dell’Arte di Disgeno, thanks in part to Vasari’s influence. The Accademia drew inspiration for its educational programme and ideal artist model from The Lives and sought to train artists in both creative and literary and scientific disciplines. Vasari was made a Knight of Saint Peter in 1571 by Pope Pius V.

Vasari, who was 63 when he died on June 27, 1574, was an Italian philosopher. In Arezzo’s Santa Maria di Arezzo, he was buried in a chapel he had built for himself.

What will live on in Vasari’s memory is his important 1550 volume, The Lives of the Most Eminent Sculptors, Painters, and Architects, which helped establish art history as a legitimate academic field. Throughout the ages, artists and academics have used The Lives as a valuable, albeit flawed, and sometimes mythical resource for studying the Italian Renaissance and its antecedents. Artists like El Greco, Annibale Caracci, and Frederico Zuccaro had annotated copies of The Lives in their libraries, and the alphabetical listing of artist biographies ensured that female Renaissance artists who might otherwise have been overlooked were recorded, including Sofonisba Anguissola and her sisters, and Properzia de’ Rossi of Bologna.

As a starting point for understanding the work of a particular artist, Vasari’s Lives employed the artist’s biography, a procedure that is now standard practise in art history classes. Vasari arranged his artist biographies in a logical order, starting with the artist’s birthplace and family background, followed by a detailed description of the artist’s arduous training, and finally stories and facts about the artist’s professional success and artistic value. Vasari portrayed an ideal artist who was both financially astute and successful in her own right, as well as someone who went about her business in a morally upright manner. “part historical urban legend, part morality tale,” say Ingrid Rowland and Noah Charney, since Vasari demonstrated “that talent is not enough to build a career: persistence counts too.” Achieving “became thinkers as well as makers.” status was a major accomplishment for artists in Vasari’s day. Artists from Tuscany and notably Florentine were favoured in the Lives because their paintings were considered perfect by Vasari. With his second book (1568), in which he recognised the contribution of Venetian artists to the Renaissance, he made some headway toward redressing his regional imbalance.

Vasari, who was a voracious collector of drawings, helped to popularise the idea of drawings as valuable artefacts rather than just as wasteful preparation material. He collected and presented drawings by painters he respected in volumes called Libri dei Disegni (Books of Drawings), which are now gone. To put it another way, Vasari is said to have spared Michelangelo’s sketches from being set afire in an effort to hide the hard labour and planning that went into them, so undermining the notion that his best works were the result of creative spontaneity.

Famous Art by Giorgio di Antonio Vasari

Portrait of Lorenzo de’ Medici

1533

This picture of Lorenzo de’ Medici, commonly known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, the Italian Statesman and famed ruler of Florence, was painted by Vasari when he was 22 years old. Many artists of the Renaissance, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Sandro Botticelli, looked to De’ Medici as the most significant patron. He is seen here sitting in a blue tunic with ermine sleeves, surrounded by inscriptions in Latin extolling the virtues of his rule. “Virtutum omnium vas” (literally, “the vessel of all virtues”) is inscribed on the vase, which stands above Vice’s mask. The mask of Music, which has a flute emerging from one eye, is to his left. On the column is inscribed: “As my ancestors did for me, I honour them by my virtue”. Symbolizing his job as a financier and banker for the Papacy, he wears a scarlet purse around his waist.

Allegory of the Immaculate Conception

1541

Angels on each side of Mary carry scrolls that read, “Those who Eve’s fault condemned, Mary’s grace set free.” This explains the painting’s subject matter, which is redemption. The moonlight bathes Mary in radiance. The Old Testament prophets are shown in the lower half of the artwork, including Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and David. As a result of “because they were blessed in the womb.” Samuel and St. John the Baptist are shown as being restrained solely by their right hands.

Six Tuscan Poets

1544

The painting’s title indicates that it depicts a dialogue between six eminent Tuscan poets and thinkers from the 13th and 14th centuries. They speak and write in the Tuscan dialect. It depicts Dante Alighieri, the poet best known for his masterpiece The Divine Comedy, reclining across from Guido Cavalcanti, a romantic sonnet poet. Francesco Petrarch, a humanist scholar, sits to his right, carrying a copy of his Scattered Rhymes, a collection of short poems. The Decameron’s author, Giovanni Boccaccio, sits in the middle, while Marsilio Ficino, a humanist, and Cristoforo Landino, a philosopher, stand on each side. As a mark of respect, the four greatest Italian writers always wear laurel wreaths around their necks. The solar quadrant and celestial globe indicate astronomy, the compass represents mathematics, the terrestrial globe represents geography, and the books for rhetoric are on the table in front of Dante.

Deposition from the Cross

1540

The Camaldoli monks, who run a monastery south of Florence, commissioned this artwork for their sanctuaries. You may find important works by Renaissance painters Giotto, Fra Angelico, Raphael, Raphael and Tintoretto in this collection that depict Christ’s fall from the cross (known as the Deposition of Christ). It depicts St. John the Evangelist helping Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus carry Christ from the cross after his crucifixion. In the lower left corner of the image, we see Mary Magdalene holding Mary, and several witnesses around her. The fact that Mary is portrayed fainting is noteworthy. Vasari’s commission retold a mediaeval tale popularised by the work Meditations on the Life of Christ (c. 1300). The Counter Reformation’s Council of Trent in 1563 discouraged this narrative, however. Vasari’s style changed as a result of this work. In the late 1520s, a method known as Mannerist design began to gain popularity, and this piece is an example of it. There was less of an emphasis on delicate shading and muted tones in Vasari’s drawings of people. He makes use of exaggeration and chiaroscuro lighting to enhance the drama in this painting rather than using realistic perspective.

The Last Judgement

1572

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Florence, created by Filippo Brunelleschi, commissioned this painting in 1568 from Cosimo I for the dome of the Cathedral in Florence. Vasari undertook this project as his last major project before his death in 1574, and it took up over 4000 square metres of area. It was only at this point that Vasari was able to finish all 24 Elders’ decorations. Another five years would pass before the painting was completed by Frederico Zuccari, a student of Correggio’s.

BULLET POINTED (SUMMARISED)

Best for Students and a Huge Time Saver

• By 1530, Giorgio di Antonio Vasari had already established himself as a key figure in the development of Italian Renaissance art, despite missing the so-called “High Renaissance” of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael.
• For his frescos and his use of the Mannerism style to amplify biblical storey, he is well-regarded as an architect and painter.
• The majority of experts, on the other hand, think that his greatest contribution to Western art history was not made via a piece of art at all, but rather through a tome: The Lives of the Most Eminent Painters.
• Vasari originally established the now recognised art historical practise of employing biological models to provide meaning to individual pieces of art in The Lives (as it has come to be called).
• To paraphrase Andrew Ladis, Vasari made Michelangelo “the triumphant saviour of the arts, a figure of light” as he phrased it.
• According to The Lives, Vasari’s age was the “rebirth” of art following the collapse of Rome, and the works of proto-Renaissance artist Giotto were the start of art’s journey to aesthetic greatness.
• The first thing to know about Vasari is that he was a thrifty businessman.
• As a result, he began to see how “artistic influence” may help raise the perceived worth of a piece of art.
• As a result of his position, painters – or at least certain particular artists – began to enjoy a higher social prestige than that of regular artisans.
• One’s prospects of fame and financial stability increase if they can pass themselves off as an artist.
• In this astonishing message to his former coworkers and superiors, he summed up his status as follows: “Once upon a time, I was as poor as the rest of you, but now days, I have at least three thousand scudi.
• Even if you thought I was uncomfortable (as a painter), the religious orders see me as a capable teacher.
• I used to serve you, but now I have a personal aide who takes care of my horse.
• Once upon a time, I wore rags, like the impoverished artists who wore them, but now, I wear velvet.
• I used to go on foot, but nowadays I prefer to ride a horse.”
• Vasari made a name for himself early on thanks to the commissioned portraits he painted.
• Pastel colours were his go-to choice for bringing out the humanist and compassionate side of his illustrious subjects.
• As a memento mori, he would include symbols in the photo frame that reflected the person’s gravity and rank.
• The ideas of tonal harmony had been the focus of Vasari’s portrait work, therefore he moved to Mannerism in his religious art.
• More artifice was used to create an air of great elegance and increased drama within the image storey in these compositions: strange hues, anomalies in scale and exaggerations of it.
• To put it another way, Vasari gave birth to a popular art history in his two volumes of The Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, And Architects (1550; 1568).
• Vasari held the belief that the core of Renaissance art could be discovered by studying the lives and times of the Florentine and Venetian artists.
• The book adhered to a well-established biographical writing style, but Vasari added a fresh anecdotal flavour to the proceedings by making moral judgments about the artists’ actions.
• This book has received much criticism for its lack of objectivity and the abundance of factual flaws and embellishments it contains.
• A fundamental truth of art and literature is that the extraordinary actions of divinely talented persons may be used to shed light on the past.
• This idealised “bourgeois” view of art history has been challenged by a large number of radicals and revisionists who have written treatises, but the concept of a “biographical legend” is what has done most to raise appreciation for art across all social strata.

Information Citations

En.wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/.

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