The collector of lives Giorgio Vasari and the invention of art

"Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) was a man of many talents--a sculptor, painter, architect, writer, and scholar--but he is best known for Lives of the Artists, the classic account that singlehandedly invented the genre of artistic biography and established the canon of Italian Renaissance art. Befor...

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Main Authors: Rowland, Ingrid D. (Author), Charney, Noah (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language: English
Published: New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2017]
Edition: First edition.
Subjects:
Summary: "Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) was a man of many talents--a sculptor, painter, architect, writer, and scholar--but he is best known for Lives of the Artists, the classic account that singlehandedly invented the genre of artistic biography and established the canon of Italian Renaissance art. Before Vasari's extraordinary book, art was considered a technical skill rather than an intellectual pursuit, and artists were mere decorators and craftsmen. It was through Vasari's visionary writings that artists like Raphael, Leonardo, and Michelangelo came to be regarded as great masters of life as well as art, their creative genius celebrated as a divine gift. Their enduring reputations testify to Vasari's profound yet unspoken influence on western culture. An advisor to kings and pontiffs--and a confidant to Titian, Donatello, and more--Vasari enjoyed an exhilarating career amid the thrilling culture of Renaissance Italy"--Inside dust jacket.
Physical Description: viii, 420 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : color illustrations ; 25 cm
Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 9780393241310
0393241319
Author Notes: Ingrid Rowland is an award-winning author, a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books, and a professor of history, classics, art, and architecture at the University of Notre Dame, based in Rome.

Noah Charney is an internationally best-selling author and professor of art history living in Slovenia.