Lives of the Artists

In his Lives of the Artists of the Italian Renaissance, Vasari demonstrated a literary talent that outshone even his outstanding abilities as a painter and architect. Through character sketches and anecdotes he depicts Piero di Cosimo shut away in his derelict house, living only to paint; Giulio Romano's startling painting of Jove striking down the giants; and his friend Francesco Salviati, whose biography also tells us much about Vasari's own early career. Vasari's original and soaring vision plus his acute aesthetic judgements have made him one of the most influential art historians of all time.

Introduction
Vasari's Lives
Vasari and the Renaissance Artist
Translator's Note
The Lives
Preface to the Lives
Cimabue
Giotto

Preface to Part Two
Uccello
Ghiberti
Masaccio
Brunelleschi
Donatello
Piero della Francesca
Fra Angelico
Alberti
Fra Filippo Lippi
Botticelli
Verrocchio
Mantegna

Preface to Part Three
Leonardo da Vinci
Giorgione
Correggio
Raphael
Michelangelo
Titian
Notes on the Artists
Further Reading

Giorgio Vasari (1511-74) was an accomplished painter and architect, but it is for his illuminating biographies of artists that he is best remembered. George Bull translated widely from the Italian during his lifetime, and also wrote several books on the Renaissance period.