Giorgio Vasari played a pivotal role in the birth of art history as an established discipline. He was an Italian artist, architect, and writer who lived in the 16th century. Vasari was regarded as one of the most knowledgeable and skilled individuals in the art world of his time.
The Birth of Art History
Vasari was the first Italian art historian and the author of the first artist biographies, an encyclopedic genre that remains relevant today. This organization of art historical studies as a series of biographies remained largely unchanged until the “school-specific” approach of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For instance, figures like Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo, Karel van Mander, Filippo Baldinucci, Joachim von Sandrart, and Antonio Palomino were considered continuations of Vasari’s work.
It was Vasari who coined terminologies that are still in use today, such as ‘Rinascimento’ (Renaissance), Gothic, or “Maniera moderna” (Modern style).
Giorgio Vasari’s book “Le Vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori” (The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects) is considered one of the earliest and most significant art historical texts. It was first published in 1550 and expanded in 1568.
Le Vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori
“Le Vite” (as the title is shortened to) is a collection of biographies of various artists, including painters, sculptors, and architects, from ancient times to Vasari’s own time in the 16th century. Vasari himself was an Italian painter and architect, and he wrote the book with the purpose of documenting and celebrating the lives and works of famous artists.
The first edition was published in 1550 by Lorenzo Torrentino and achieved remarkable popularity, prompting the author to create a significantly expanded and revised second edition. The second edition, a monumental work in three volumes totaling 1012 pages, was published in 1568 by the Giunti family.
This work constitutes the first comprehensive collection of art history. It serves as a crucial source—often the only one—for biographical information about artists who lived in the transition between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. At the same time, it functions as a repository of information about artworks that have been lost, scattered, or destroyed. Although Vasari wrote with both passion and care, at times he could “oversell” the development of art and relationships between artists in his descriptions. Later examinations of Vasari’s text, including a thorough review by Gaetano Milanesi in 1848, have identified and corrected erroneous information (often stemming from the naivety that many earlier historians fell into). This has restored the value of the text, which not only influenced art assessment until much of the 19th century but continues to serve as an indispensable and frequently cited bibliographic reference to this day.
The biographies in “Le Vite” provide valuable insights into the lives, careers, and artistic styles of the artists. Vasari does not just focus on their artistic achievements but also includes anecdotes (gossip) and historical context to offer readers a comprehensive understanding of each artist’s contribution to the field. He portrayed artists not just as craftsmen but as intellectuals exercising a high artistic creativity. The book also offers a broader historical and artistic context, analyzing artists’ styles and development over time. Additionally, he emphasized the evolution of art through different periods and identified key milestones and changes in art history.
Vasari also played a crucial role in disseminating Italian Renaissance art to the rest of Europe. He worked as an artist and architect for several important figures, including the Medici family in Florence. His close connections to artistic circles and the nobility gave him unique insights into the art world of his time.
Thanks to Vasari’s contributions, his book “Le Vite” became a central reference and source of inspiration for later art historians and scholars. His approach to art history as a coherent narrative of artists’ lives and works paved the way for the modern understanding of art history as an academic discipline.
Vasari’s work established the foundation for art history as a discipline. He was one of the first scholars to recognize the importance of documenting and analyzing the development of art over time. “Le Vite” was influential and left a lasting impact on subsequent art historical research. It has served as a reference work for many later researchers and art enthusiasts.
Therefore, it can be said that Giorgio Vasari played a crucial role in the birth of art history by establishing a methodical approach to documenting and analyzing artists’ lives and works. His work “Le Vite” marked the beginning of a new era in art historical research and understanding.
Le Vite Contents
“Le Vite” is a collection of biographies of many important Italian artists from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and often serves as a classic reference for various styles, such as Paolo Uccello (Paolo Doni) or Piero della Francesca (Piero de’ Franceschi).
The biographies that Vasari wrote are generally reliable for painters from his own generation and the immediate preceding ones, but less reliable for artists who were more distant in time. Modern critics have corrected many of his attributions and dates based on new information and research. Nevertheless, the work remains a classic today, although it should be complemented with modern critical research.
With a few exceptions, Vasari’s aesthetic judgments are quite precise and sharp and remain relevant today. He was able to provide assessments based on a scale appropriate for the time when the works were created. For instance, he never criticized Gothic artists for stiffness or lack of spatial depth.
Like many of his contemporary historians, Vasari at times was overly eager and included anecdotes about scandals and gossip in the biographies and often accepted oral sources without verification. This led to some significant errors (like the unlikely murder of Domenico Veneziano by Andrea del Castagno), which somewhat undermined Vasari’s work in the eyes of modern criticism. Most of the anecdotes, even if presented as factual events, are likely more imaginative or even entirely fabricated. Some are indeed generic stories, like the one about the young Giotto who painted a fly on a painting by Cimabue, and the old master repeatedly tried in vain to chase it away. Other times, Vasari conducted careful research and examined archives and the few available sources on artistic events from periods earlier than his own. To prove Michelangelo’s apprenticeship to Domenico Ghirlandaio (a fact excluded by Ascanio Condivi’s biography, later revised by Buonarroti), he visited Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio’s workshop, the master’s son, where he found traces of payments to the very young Buonarroti.
Vasari included a 42-page autobiography at the end of ‘Lives’ and added further details about himself and his family in the biographies of Lazzaro Vasari and Francesco Salviati. While writing “Le Vite,” he utilized a personal and extraordinary collection of over five hundred drawings by Italian artists, which were dispersed after his death and are known as Giorgio Vasari’s ‘Book of Drawings’ (‘Libro de’ disegni di Giorgio Vasari’).
Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari was a significant artist and architect in his own right. He was born on July 30, 1511, in Arezzo, Italy, and his career spanned various disciplines and artistic activities.
Vasari began his career as a painter and trained under the influential artist Andrea del Sarto. He primarily worked in Florence and created paintings inspired by the Florentine Renaissance style. Unfortunately, only a few of his own paintings have survived to this day, and his painting work is not as well-known as his contributions to art history.
Fresco by Giorgio Vasari, Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. Image: Sailko
Vasari’s style has been described as fresh, and the colors in his paintings are bright.
Vasari was also recognized as a skilled architect, greatly inspired by Michelangelo. He was involved in various architectural projects and became particularly known for initiating the Uffizi Gallery in Florence (in 1560), which remains a significant art institution today.