Posted
on July 30, 2015
On
this date in 1511, one of the founders of art history was born.
Giorgio
Vasari was one of those polymath guys: he was a painter, he was an
architect, he was a writer, and he was a historian. Combine all that
together, and you get someone who writes one of the seminal books on
art history!
Born
in Italy, Vasari was a pupil of a man who painted stained glass, and
at age he traveled to Florence to study. He became a friend of none
other than Michelangelo!
Soon
he visited Rome to study the works of Raphael and other artists. He
was making his own paintings and frescoes and was steadily employed
in various Italian cities, such as Florence, Rome, and Naples. He was
also successful as an architect, constructing a loggia here and a
passage there, renovating churches, and even building an octagonal
dome for a basilica.
 |
| A loggia is an open-sided extension of a house or building... |
As
I hinted above, however, Vasari is now famous, not for his painting
or architecture, but for his art historical writing. He is often
called “the first art historian.” In his book The Lives of the
Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, Vasari invented
the idea of creating an encyclopedia of artists' biographies. Also,
Vasari was the first to use the term “Renaissance” in print about
the “rebirth” in arts that started more than a century before his
birth.
Of
course, Vasari's book is not perfect. He gave more kudos to artists
who lived in Florence, even, than they deserved, and he ignored
artists from Venice and other parts of Europe to some extent, in the
first edition. Later editions did include artists from Venice,
however.
Critics
say that Vasari included some amusing gossip in his biographies, and
many of the stories sound quite realistic – although some anecdotes
are known to be fictional. Vasari didn't do as much research as he
might have done, and some of what he wrote has been corrected by
modern art historians (we're talking birth dates and exact dates of a
painting, for example). However, most critics think that Vasari's
opinions about artworks are very well-stated and accurate and
unbiased.
Also
on this date:
Plan
ahead:
Check
out my Pinterest boards for:
And
here are my Pinterest boards for:
