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| Giorgio Vasari, self portrait. Photo by lhwilkenson, courtesy of flikr creative commons. |
From the height of the cinquecento
to present day, the art biographer Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) has been
fundamental to historians for Renaissance art and its budding artists. His biography The Lives of Artists was,
and is still, integral for studying the Renaissance style (how it came to be
and why).
However, as the years have passed,
art historians have actually found many of Vasari’s facts to be false – bits
and pieces of information have been either misleading or completely off target.
Another poignant part of Vasari’s
life, after the creation of the Council of Trent
(1545-1563), seems to contradict his vehement recordings of
the Renaissance. He, along with
infamous artists such as Sandro Boticelli, took part in the massive destruction
and recreation of paintings, murals, frescos and sculptures straying from the
strict ideals of the Catholic Counter Reformation.
Interestingly
enough, today Vasari is still thought of as the most iconic art biographer in
historic times; and though there are gaps in truth, The Lives of Artists does provide direct and invaluable insight into the
Renaissance.
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