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Vasari, Giorgio
painter and architect; b. 1511; d. July 27, 1574.
Giorgio Vasari was born at Arezzo (Italy), a kinsman of Luca Signorelli. His first teacher in painting appears to have been Guillaume de Marcillat. His literary training was superintended by the Aretine poet Giovanni Pollastra. About 1523 he went to Florence, and entered the service of Ottaviano de' Medici and the Duke Alessandro de' Medici. He went to Rome afterwards with the Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici. From 1555 to the end of his life he was court painter to Cosimo I de' Medici, duke of Florence. The most important of his undertakings are the frescos of the Cancelleria in Rome and those of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. As architect he prepared in 1536 the deorations of the triumphal entry of the Emperor Charles V into Florence. He made the original plans of the Vigna di Papa Giulio (Julius III, Pope 1550-1555) in Rome. He remodeled the Palazzo Vecchio and built the Palazzo degli Uffizi in Florence. At Pistoia he built the cupola of the church of the Madonna dee' Umiltą, and at Pisa the Palazzo dei Cavalieri de S. Stefano. He built the Badia and the "Loggie Vasari" at Arezzo.
Vasari's most important work is his series of biographies of artists; Le Vite de' pił eccellenti Architetti, Pittori e Scultori. The first editions appears in 1550. The second , in 1568, was made complete. The standard of Vasari is that of Gaetano Milanese, which was published in Florence between 1878 and 1885. A new comprehensive Italian edition is now in progress under the supervision of A. Venturi. The Vite were translated into English by Mrs. Forster in 1888. A selection of seventy of the Lives from Mrs. Foster's translation, with introduction, annotation, and bibliography by E. H. and E. W. Blashfield and A. A. Hopkins was published in New York in 1896.
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