Fun Facts Friday: Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari (30 July, 1515 – 27 June, 1574) was a writer, painter, and engineer from Italy. He is considered to be the foundation of art-history writing.

Books by, or about, Giorgio Vasari*

Fun Facts about Giorgio Vasari:

1. Giorgio Vasari was born in Arezzo, Tuscany – at the time considered to be the Republic of Florence.
2. As a young boy, Vasari started to apprentice a famous stained glass painter, Guglielmo da Marsiglia.
3. At sixteen years of age Giorgio Vasari was sent to Florence to be educated. He befriended Michelangelo who influenced him greatly.
4. Vasari’s painting were more appreciated during his lifetime than after his death.
5. As a writer, Vasari invented the genre of encyclopedic artistic biographies with his book Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1550).
6. The book was dedicated to Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, it was also the first to use the term “Renaissance”.
7. Notoriously, and understandably, in the book Mr. Vasari tends to favor Florentine artists, attributing to them all of the developments in Renaissance art. Art from other parts of Europe, and modern day Italy, are ignored.
8. In the second edition of the book Vasari pays more attention to Venetian art.
9. While important, the book is filled with inaccuracies, mixing facts with gossip and anecdotes which either sound true or complete fiction.
10. Giorgio Vasari was famous and rich during his lifetime. He built a beautiful house (now a museum), was knighted by the Pope, and married Niccolosa Bacci, who came from a rich family.

Books by, or about, Giorgio Vasari*

Zohar — Man of la Book
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account