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GIORGIO VASARI (1511-1571)

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 926 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GIORGIO See also:

VASARI (1511-1571)  , See also:Italian painter and architect, whose See also:main distinction, however, rests on his valuable See also:history of Italian See also:art, was See also:born at See also:Arezzo on the 3oth of See also:July 1511 . At a very See also:early See also:age he became a See also:pupil of Guglielmo da Marsiglia, a very skilful painter of stained See also:glass, to whom he was recommended by his own kinsman, the painter Luca See also:Signorelli . At the age of sixteen he went to See also:Florence, where he studied under See also:Michelangelo and See also:Andrea del Sarto, aided by the patronage of the See also:Medici princes . In 1529 he visited See also:Rome and studied the See also:works of See also:Raphael and others of his school . The paintings of See also:Vasari were much admired by the rapidly degenerating See also:taste of the 16th See also:century; but they possess the smallest amount of merit, being in the main feeble parodies of the powerful works of Michelangelo . Vasari was largely employed in Florence, Rome, See also:Naples, Arezzo and other places . Many of his pictures still exist, the most important being the See also:wall and See also:ceiling paintings in the See also:great See also:hall of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, and his frescoes on the See also:cupola of the See also:cathedral, which, however, were not completed at the See also:time of his See also:death . As an architect he was perhaps more successful: the loggia of the Uffizi by the See also:Arno, and the See also:long passage connecting it with the Pitti See also:Palace, are his See also:chief works . Unhappily he did much to injure the See also:fine See also:medieval churches of S . Maria Novella and See also:Santa Croce, from both of which he removed the See also:original See also:rood-See also:screen and See also:loft, and remodelled the retro-See also:choir in the degraded taste of his time . Vasari enjoyed a very high repute during his lifetime and amassed a considerable See also:fortune . He built himself in 1547 a fine See also:house in Arezzo, and spent much labour in decorating its walls and vaults with paintings .

He was elected one of the municipal See also:

council or priori of his native See also:town, and finally See also:rose to the supreme See also:office of gonfaloniere . He died at Florence on the 27th of See also:June 1571 . Personally Vasari was a See also:man of upright See also:character, See also:free from vanity, and always ready to appreciate the works of others: in spite of the narrow and meretricious taste of his time, he expresses a warm admiration of the works of such men as See also:Cimabue and See also:Giotto, which is very remarkable . As an art historian of his See also:country he must always occupy the highest See also:rank . His great See also:work was first published in 1550, and after-wards partly rewritten and enlarged in 1568, bearing the See also:title belie Vile de' See also:pin eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori . It was dedicated to Cosimo de' Medici, and was printed at Florence by the Giunti; it is a small See also:quarto illustrated with many See also:good woodcut portraits . This editio princeps of the See also:complete work is usually See also:bound in three volumes, and also contains a very valuable See also:treatise on the technical methods employed in all branches of the arts, entitled Le Tre Arti del discgaao, cioe architeltura, pittura, e scoltura . His See also:biographies are written in a very pleasant See also:style, interspersed with amusing stories . With a few exceptions Vasari's See also:judgment is acute and unbiased . And though See also:modern See also:criticism—with all the new materials opened up by See also:research—has done valuable work in upsetting a good many of his traditional accounts and attributions, the result is a tendency very often to under-estimate Vasari's accuracy and to multiply hypotheses of a rather speculative character . The work .in any See also:case remains a classic, however it may be supplemented by the more See also:critical research of modern days . Vasari gives a See also:sketch of his own See also:biography at the end of his 'Vite, and adds further details about himself and his See also:family in his lives of Lazzaro Vasari and See also:Francesco Salviati .

The best edition of Vasari's works is that published at Florence by See also:

Milanesi (1878-1882), which embodies the valuable notes in the earlier edition by Le See also:Monnier (1846) ; another, by Venturi, was begun in 1896 . ' The Lives has been translated into See also:French, See also:German and See also:English (by Mrs See also:Foster, See also:London, 185o) .

End of Article: GIORGIO VASARI (1511-1571)
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