Vasari's Florence
Vasari's Florence
Out of Print
Vasari's Florence explores the multi-faceted career of Giorgio Vasari - painter, architect, artistic impresario, collector and author of Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, a text that stands at the foundation of art historical writing up to the present. The essays in this volume examine Vasari's working relationship with his advisor, Vincenzo Borghini, from the decoration of the Palazzo Vecchio and the Sala Regia at the Vatican, to the master's last and greatest challenge, the Cupola of Florence cathedral. Also offered are new insights into Vasari's writings - how Vasari constructed the Lives of his contemporaries to suit his objectives as an artist in his own right, and how his views have conditioned our understanding of Renaissance art. Drawing on recently discovered documentary sources from the Vasari family archive, Vasari's Florence puts into new perspective the historiographical and artistic achievements of this pivotal Renaissance artist.
- Includes appendices with hitherto unknown documents from the Vasari archive
- Photographs of newly restored frescoes in Cupola of Florence Cathedral and newly attributed Vasari drawings published for the first time
- Leading specialists' first collective attempt to examine Vasari's interests as a collector, and the Lives in terms of the literary culture of the time
Reviews & endorsements
'…these essays are lucid and readable, and provide insight into a remarkably complex artistic scene.' Robert Birbeck, uilding Design
'… can be recommended to any reader with an interest, not only in Vasari himself, but in the Medici grand ducal ambience of the mid-sixteenth century.' Brian Tovey, The Art Newspaper
'The essays in this volume have much to say about Vasari's originality and profundity as thinker and artist. They are a valuable contribution to our understanding of a perennially fascinating figure.' Burlington Magazine
'The essays in this volume have much to say about Vasari's originally and profundity as thinker and artist. They are a valuable contribution to our understanding of a perennially fascinating figure.' Burlington Magazine
Product details
April 1998Hardback
9780521580885
336 pages
262 × 187 × 26 mm
1.11kg
120 b/w illus.
Unavailable - out of print March 2007
Table of Contents
- Part I. The Biographical Genre: Giorgio Vasari and the paragons of art John Shearman
- The trick of art Paul Barolsky
- Representation misrepresentation and non-representation: Vasari and his competitors Elizabeth Pilliod
- Part II. Artists and Literati at Court: Sprezzatura patronage and fate: Benvenuto Cellini and the world of words Paulo L. Rossi
- Vasari on the practical David Cast
- Part III. Vasari Collezionista: The Formation of an Artist and Connoisseur: Modes and models in Vasari's early drawing oeuvre Florian Harb
- Vasari's attitude toward collecting Catherine Monbeig Goguel
- The Vasari art collection Creighton Gilbert
- Giorgio Vasari's collection of paintings: its provenance and its fate Alessandro Cecchi
- Part IV. Istoria and the Representation of History: The Sala Grande in the Palazzo Vecchio and the precedence controversy between Florence and Ferrara Robert Williams
- Vasari's painting of the Terzo Cerchio in the Palazzo Vecchio: a reconstruction of Medieval Florence Rick Scorza
- Circles of sovereignty: the Tondi of the Sala Grande in the Palazzo Vecchio and the Medici Crown Henk Th. Van Veen
- Papal history and historical Invenzione: Vasari's frescoes in the Sala Regia Jan L. De Jong
- Vasari's last paintings: the cupola of Florence cathedral Cristina Acidini Luchinat.
