Vasari

Vasari, GIORGIO, an Italian architect and painter, famous as a biographer and critic of artists, was born at Arezzo, 30th July 1511. He was a pupil of Michelangelo, and obtained the patronage of many distinguished persons, as Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici, Clement VII., and the Dukes Alessandro and Cosmo de' Medici; but his pictures (many of which still exist, as in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence) possess no distinctive merit. His reputation rests exclusively on his Vite de' più eccellenti Pittori, Scultori, e Architetti (1550; 2d ed. 1568; standard modern edition by Milanese, 9 vols. 1878-85; Eng. trans. by Mrs Foster, 1850). This work is written, on the whole, in a simple and honest style; at times it is even marked by a noble eloquence. The criticism is often admirable; and in spite of frequent inaccuracies in the early biographies, it remains a model of art criticism and biography. Vasari died at Florence, 27th June 1574.