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Information Anyone read Vasari's "The Lives of the Artists"?

SuzanneT

10+ Posts
In preparation for my return to Florence on 12 March !!! I'm taking a couple courses. There's focus on Vasari's biases/pov but I'm curious if anyone here has read his book and was it worthwhile?
It's even available on kindle!
Grazie mille
 
I read it some years back. I found it interesting and worth the read, especially since I studied in Florence and listened to a lot of lectures on art history.
 
I read it some years back. I found it interesting and worth the read, especially since I studied in Florence and listened to a lot of lectures on art history.
In preparation for my return to Florence on 12 March !!! I'm taking a couple courses. There's focus on Vasari's biases/pov but I'm curious if anyone here has read his book and was it worthwhile?
It's even available on kindle!
Grazie mille
It's a well deserved 'classic', but rather encyclopedic in nature and most typically read in sections devoted to the few/several artists and their period of work that you will be focusing your studies on. In general, a very worthwhile resource to enrich your Florentine experience. Also, note the new room distributions of paintings at the Uffizi, which I assume will be on your itinerary. Enjoy!
 
I found a free copy and downloaded it from utorrent and am really enjoying reading about an artist that I'm focusing on vs "reading" the whole book!

Allen...I used to go to the Uffizi every morning (1960's, 70's) when it was practically empty and I had a museum pass. I would pop in and see my favorites including the Room of Unknown Angels and leave. But then things changed and it's so packed with people I don't want to go.

Any suggestions?
 
Suzanne, I'm afraid I'm not a very good person to ask since I have also bypassed the Uffizi of late and only frequented many of the other amazing venues for amazing art in Florence ever since the stuffing was knocked out of the Friends of the Uffizi pass several years ago, and also because, apparently like you, I am not great with inescapably frustrated crowds. Others' will have more reliable info, but I believe there is currently a Uffizi pass just for unlimited use at the Uffizi (and the timed, single entry only to many other museums in Florence that you can access with the Firenze Card can still be a significant aid). When visiting the Uffizi with a timed reservation (as I'm sure you know, one should NEVER just show up to stand hours in line), I would typically have a circumscribed mission of visiting only the few rooms related to the art/artist I was studying, then briskly head up to the rooftop cafe for a couple of campari/sodas while my wife utilized her much greater brain-bandwidth to complete her 3 hr route. So if an artist or work I was studying was especially well represented at the Uffizi, I would still personally bite the bullet. Others' would also certainly have good information about the benefits of an organized tour (I'm not good with tours, either - see the pattern?). While there are endless anecdotes about the crowd size being lower at certain times of day, I mentally prepare for the worst and try to keep my wife's advice in mind upon entry, i.e., "get ready to channel your inner sheep". Hope you find a way to visit that suits you.
 
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Suzanne, just integrated the fact you will be in Florence very soon! I assume the crowd size will be much more manageable at this time of year, so you can entirely ignore my chatter which is based on exclusively summer time visits to Florence.
Enjoy your trip.
 
Allen...I so appreciate your "chatter". As I understand it the place is always crowded except maybe at lunch time...12:30 ish. Another downer for me was after they cleaned some of my favorites they put them behind a thin glass for obvious reasons. But it's just like the Pieta in Rome, I don't enjoy spending time with them.


And as you say I may just bite the bullet...I can always leave and they'll never take me alive.
 
AND most of my favorite art is in museums, churches, homes that are usually almost empty. What a city and what an explosion of talented people adorned it. We are very lucky people that we have this opportunity to visit Florence...over and over again.
 
I read portions of Vasari years ago. Some accounts are interesting, but there's some debate about its accuracy. I've heard he was influenced by his personal feelings of who he liked and didn't. BTW, I'm an artist and painting professor and not a fan of the Uffizi - huge crowds, terrible lighting and signage - tour groups standing right in front of the paintings and not even looking at them.... Last time I went I swore I'd never go back. I was with a pretty well-known artist and I confessed it to him. He said he felt the same way.
 
BTW, I'm an artist and painting professor and not a fan of the Uffizi - huge crowds, terrible lighting and signage - tour groups standing right in front of the paintings and not even looking at them.... Last time I went I swore I'd never go back. I was with a pretty well-known artist and I confessed it to him. He said he felt the same way.
Matt...thank you for your comments about the Uffizi. I haven't been in it since it was restored after being bombed back in the 1970's. So I'll skip it again this visit. Florence is so rich in art and it's so compact, I have to pace myself and spend more time so I can see less daily. I can't see that many beautiful things in one day...seriously.

RE: Vasari... my introduction to Western Civ was at Occidental College back in the 1960's and now with Visari's book, I see why I got to Florence for the 1st time and the only artist I knew was Michaelangelo! I went home so angry ... why hadn't I learned more about Donatelo, etc. His vendettas made many artists obscure and he certainly cultivates this focus on one artist as God with a few lesser artists sprinkled around him. LOL

Thank you for your post.
 
Suzanne, as an artist and Renaissance scholar, I would highly recommend Vasari, as it's still the no. 1 source for the artists biographies. Yes, it has flaws as he was as biased towards Tuscan artists as some of our news media is towards or against our politicians. Reading it, again, will give you so much more insight into some of the art you'll be seeing. I, actually, re-read it every couple of years and use it extensively when I have to give a talk. I'm just finishing up a book titled "The Medici", which is about....the Medici. It also gives you a great indepth history of Florence, the political and social climate during the Medici reign, and how they had a great influence on how our modern world is shaped. I highly recommend this one too.
 
Harvey ...thank you for posting and best wishes for the success of your new book. RE: Vasari... I am reading it selectively and have it on my laptop so I can read, see and experience in Florence and a few other parts of Italy! lol
Question: is there a current course on Renaissance art that you recommend? online, youtube? I am 72 and can no longer read regular books but I can read anything that's digital. I just finished a youtube series from Temple University that I enjoyed.
 
22 March 2018: update
I am really enjoying reading Visari! he is making things here come alive for me in a unique way. I can highly recommend him. Whether totally accurate or not, his telling of the competition between Donatello and Brunelleschi carving the wood crucifixes caused me to go visit both. And I had no idea our dear Fra Lippo Lippi was such a hoot!
Thank you again to everyone who contributed to this thread.
 

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