Vasari, Giorgio (1511-1574) 
- Name:
- Giorgio Vasari
- Dates:
- Arezzo, 1511 - Florence, 1574
- Attivitą:
- architect, painter, writer
- Places:
- Florence, Rome
- Biographical information:
-
Giorgio Vasari carried out his first apprenticeship in Arezzo, where he was born in 1511. At the age of thirteen he moved to Florence, where he studied in particular the works of Michelangelo, Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino. In 1524 he commenced his own activity as a painter, and soon began working for the Medici, his principal commissioners.
He travelled a great deal, extending his interests and his composite and eclectic inspiring models. He worked in Rome, where he became familiar with the masterpieces of Raphael and Michelangelo and frequented the circle of intellectuals that gravitated around Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1531-1538). He also sojourned in Bologna (1536-1537), Venice (1541) and Naples (1545).
In 1550 the first edition of his most important literary work: The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects was published by Lorenzo Torrentino.
Favoured by the commissions of Pope Julius III, Vasari became a leading figure at the papal court. In Florence in 1554, he entered the service of Cosimo I de’ Medici, Duke of Florence, with whom he established a close and lasting relationship of reciprocal trust and esteem. For Cosimo he performed assignments as architect, painter and scenographer, thus endowing the city and certain public sites with a new appearance fitting to the seat of a duke. He transformed the ancient Palazzo della Signoria, to which Cosimo had moved with his family and his court. Vasari renovated and redecorated the interiors, availing of the services of a team of artists, in line with a programme of contents that was expounded in detail in the Ragionamenti… published posthumously in 1588. In 1560 he built the Palazzo degli Uffizi and five years later the corridor (known as the “Vasarian corridor”) to connect the Uffizi to Palazzo Pitti, which Cosimo had purchased in the meantime and chosen as his new palace. Vasari also designed and built the palazzi of the Order of Saint Stephen in Pisa. He directed all the major enterprises promoted by the Medici Duke. He was responsible for the rearrangement of the Basilicas of Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella, to adapt them to the dictates of the Council and the Counter Reformation. He was the co-ordinator of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, set up in 1563, presided over by Cosimo I and dedicated to Michelangelo. Availing of the assistance of the artists of the Accademia, Vasari directed works for the solemn funeral celebrations organised on the death of Buonarroti (1564). He also organised and co-ordinated the scenic decor for the wedding of Cosimo’s son Francesco and Joanna of Austria in 1565. Between 1570 and 1572 he directed the decoration of the Studiolo of Francesco I in Palazzo Vecchio, a consummate example of Florentine mannerism.
In the meantime he continued to travel tirelessly around Italy, collecting elements and information to enhance, correct and review his Lives, which was published in an enlarged and revised second edition by Giunti in 1568. This edition also included his own autobiography and the biographies of his contemporaries, among which that of Michelangelo was a crucial achievement.
In 1572 he designed the Palazzo delle Logge in Arezzo and began to make numerous drawings for the fresco decoration of the cupola of the Duomo in Florence. This commission crowned and concluded the relationship of faithful collaboration and felicitous harmony between him and his patron Cosimo I. In fact, both died in 1574 and the magnificent pictorial cycle in the Duomo, already launched by Vasari, was then concluded by Federico Zuccari.
Vasari’s other literary works are the Descrizione delle Feste per le nozze in 1565, published the following year and the Zibaldone, a collection of sundry writings. The latter, together with the Ricordanze and the vast correspondence, were published in the twentieth century by Del Vita and by Frey.
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