The Lives of the Artists (Oxford World's Classics)

Product Information

Vasari's Vite has been described as "by far the most influential single text for the history of Renaissance art" [8] and "the most important work of Renaissance biography of artists". [1] Its influence is situated mainly in three domains: as an example for contemporary and later biographers and art historians, as a defining factor in the view on the Renaissance and the role of Florence and Rome in it, and as a major source of information on the lives and works of early Renaissance artists from Italy.

John Addington Symonds, Renaissance in Italy, 1899, Vol. 3, Part 2". Fullbooks.com . Retrieved 5 February 2014. many portraits from life executed with beautiful grace and a good manner. NOTES. I., line 1, p. 187. This use of persona, however, should not be confused with a type of art practice that emerged in the course of the 1970s in which artists used their own life as their primary subject matter. Such figures as Sophie Calle, Christian Boltanski, Hannah Wilke, or Eleanor Antin utilised art as a sociological vehicle for the documentation of their everyday life. About Vasari himself we know an extraordinary amount, not only from his own writings—in the edition of 1568 he included an explanation of his own life and works—but also from surviving materials that document his life at the court of Cosimo I and his eventful exchanges with so many of the patrons and literati of the period.On seeing birds for sale, Da Vinci paying the price asked, and then setting them free. Da Vinci’s inventions, drawings, and dissections that he documented with characters written in reverse with the left hand. But Vasari’s writing about the artists of the Renaissance is a rich resource, as are his descriptions of the artistic techniques of the day. Nochlin, Linda. 1973. Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?. In Art and Sexual Politics, ed. Thomas B. Hess and Elizabeth Baker, pp. 194–205. New York, N.Y.: Collier Books.

In 1550 he published his book Lives of the Artists – in full, Le Vite de’ Più Eccellenti Pittori, Scultori, ed Architettori (The Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects). Andy Warhol wasn’t merely famous – he changed the nature of fame, and this impact was not limited to the world of art and artists. Warhol (1928–1987) founded his art practice on the careful choreography of his public persona. He harnessed the power of celebrity – his own, the celebrities he created, the culture’s growing thirst for celebrity as such – elevating it to a different status. For Warhol, his persona was an artistic medium, no different from the more conventional forms (film, painting, sculpture, photography) he used in his art. Perry, Gill. 1999. Preface. In Academies, Museums and Canons of Art, ed. Gill Perry and Colin Cunningham, pp. 6–17. New Haven/London: Yale University Press.

translated by Gaston du C. De Vere

In the first edition he did not include a single artist from Venice, Florence’s rival city-state. He was the first to use the word ‘Renaissance’ in a cultural context; and he also coined the term ‘Gothic Art’ in describing the creative resurgence of northern Europe.