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In exploring the relationships of artist and patron he is able to shed light on their social situation and the constant struggle of the elevation of the art of painting among the liberal arts. A good introduction to Medieval, Renaissance, and Mannerist artists written by someone who lived around their time and had actual contact with some of the artists, as well as personal painting experience. He is, however, colored by his personal relationships with the artists, hyperbolic, and constrained by the Zeitgeist of the era. In English, some of the grandeur of his writing is lost, and it lacks the poetic ease of the Italian original. If you want a fuller version, I suggest (especially for bilingual speakers) a translation with the Italian original on the other side of the page.
are lively, entertaining as well as instructive. Vasari was a life-long correspondent of Michaelangelo, a contemporary of Leonardo, etc., so the accounts are written about his friends and comnpetitors, not 100+ years later, thru the prism of time. Yet this translation is in readable, 20th Century English.The chapters on Brunelleschi, Donato, etc. MUST reading for anyone going to Italy, or to see works of the Florentine artists.(N.B. I am an engineer who never had a fine arts class, ever).
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