The lives of the most excellent painters, sculptors, and architects
By: Giorgio Vasari ; translated by Gaston du C. de Vere ; edited, with an introduction and notes, by Philip Jacks.
Contributors: De Vere, Gaston du C.; Jacks, Philip Joshua, 1954-
Publisher: Modern Library
Published: 2005
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Subjects: Artists -- Italy -- Biography.; Art, Renaissance -- Italy.; Art, Italian.
Genres: Biography.
Description: A painter and architect in his own right, Giorgio Vasari (1511-74) achieved immortality for this book on the lives of his fellow Renaissance artists, first published in Florence in 1550. Although he based his work on a long tradition of biographical writing, Vasari infused these literary portraits with a decidedly modern form of critical judgment. The result is a work that remains to this day the cornerstone of art historical scholarship.
Spanning the period from the thirteenth century to Vasari's own time, the Lives opens a window on the greatest personalities of the period, including Giotto, Brunelleschi, Mantegna, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Titian.
Notes: Originally published: New York : Scribner's, 1896.