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Trained in Florence in the school of Raphael and Michelangelo, Vasari hit the big time when he was recruited by Cosimo I to manage a cultural campaign. Over the course of 30-years, Vasari supervised the restoration of artistic integrity to the city of Florence, after years of siege and neglect. Once again, the Medici family were established as the tastemakers of Italy. Vasari even had a hand in restoring the damaged symbol of the Renaisssance, Michelangelo's “David”. Legend has it that at the age of 16, Vasari rescued pieces of the statue that were broken off in a riot. Later when the Medici returned to power, these were bolted back on. Vasari also oversaw the redecoration of the Palazzo Vecchio. He covered every surface with historical frescoes, detailing the achievements of the Medici dynasty. By supervising an army of workers Vasari managed to bring the work in on budget, and on schedule, in a matter of months.
Vasari leveled a narrow patch of ground between the Palazzo Vecchio and the river, and created one of the masterpieces of Renaisssance architecture. The offices, or uffizi, included a continuous open-air corridor so that the people of Florence might view the same gorgeous panoramas as their rulers. After Vasari's death this gallery was filled with Medici treasures, turning the Uffizi into the world's first public art gallery. Vasari's most enduring achievement was not a fresco nor a building, but a book, the “Lives of the Artists”. In vivid and awe-struck prose, he placed all the major Italian artists of the previous 200-years in their historical context, detailing their lives and their works. No one had ever attempted such cultural documentation. Vasari had written the first ever work of art history. He was careful to place the credit at the feet of the Medici family. Dedicated to his patron, Cosimo I, the book was pure propaganda - deifying the Medici and their philanthropy - that is still believed to this day. It was also Vasari who christened this movement the “rebirth”, the “rinascimento” or the “Renaisssance”. Thanks to Vasari - the spin-doctor - the Medici's place in history was assured. |
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Snapshot: Cosimo I | ||
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Florence Scape: Uffizi | |
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The Renaissance
Art
- Botticelli
- Donatello
- Ghiberti
- Gozzoli
- Leonardo
- Michelangelo
- Raphael
- Vasari
Politics
- The Republic
- Italy at War
- Machiavelli
Religion
- Heresy
- Counter-Reformation
Science & Architecture
- Galileo
- Brunelleschi