Talk:Giorgio Vasari

Antonio da Sangallo
Does anyone know which Antonio da Sangallo Vasari wrote about in Part 3 of the Vite? Looking over their histories, I think Antonio da Sangallo the Younger is more likely than Antonio da Sangallo the Elder. --Ricky81682 03:38, Dec 2, 2004 (UTC)

Unhappily he did much to injure the fine medieval churches of Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce, from both of which he removed the original rood screen and loft, and remodelled the retro-choir in the Mannerist taste of his time.

the rood screen as an architectual element was abolished after clerical reforms in connection with the concil of Trient. Therfore it must not be Vasari being responsible for this action.


 * Flawless syllogism. Any relation to the architectural history of Santa Croce? --Wetman 03:21, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I was looking at the contents of the Oxford World Classics edition of the Lives (http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/019283410X/ref=sib_rdr_toc/002-7862258-5972864?%5Fencoding=UTF8&p=S006&j=0#reader-page) and noticed that not only did it lack many of the artists listed in the article, it also contained others not listed here, namely Domenico Ghirlandaio, Properzia de' Rossi, Domenico Beccafumi, Jacopo da Pontormo and Titian. I do not have any copies of the book myself so I do not know if it is mentioned that certain artists were cut or other biographies were added that were not originally there. Can anyone with more knowledge rectify this? Countmippipopolous 04:14, 1 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Yes the list on the page is still incomplete, but I added the ones above (Properzia was already there), as well as Bandinelli. The Oxford edition is a very small selection of the actual book.--Stomme 20:59, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Vasari and "Gothic"
I very much doubt that the following is true:
 * ". Since he lived during the time of the rebirth of ancient art and literature, he named the period intervening between the fall of the Roman Empire and his own Gothic, meaning rude and barbarous."

I must have missed the word "Gothic" in reading the sections of the Lives I've read. "Gothic" would have jumped from the page of course, and should be quoted at Gothic Revival where the term is discussed. Can we get a Vasari quote that does capture his authentic historic view of the revival of arts? That would surely beat any twaddle that I could substitute for this bit of text. His preface (Proemio) would be the place to look. The Lives are in paperback: I don't have it here. In his vita of Cimabue (on-line) he praises Cimibue for shedding the "first light" among his contemporaries: "For they, never caring to advance in their art, did everything not in the good manner of ancient Greece, but after the rude manner of those times." Rude manner. But not "gothic." Nor did he consider that he lived "during the time of the rebirth of ancient art and literature" which he placed in the preceding generations of course. --Wetman 22:34, 9 September 2005 (UTC)


 * After a brief research, I discovered that seemingly there's no full English translation of the Vite; the reference comes from a chapter (§ III)on architecture, and here it is, in my impromptu version:

"And there's another style, called German, with ornaments and proportions much different from both modern and ancient ones; they are not used by the best architects, who shun them as monstruous and barbaric, as everything in it lacks order so completely that it would be better called disorder or confusion; having they done in their buildings, so many that they swamped the world, doors decorated with subtle columns, shaped like vines, which can't have the strength to hold any kind of weight; and the same for the front and other ornaments of theirs they made a plethora of small tabernacles one above the other, with plenty of pyramids, points and leaves, that it seems impossible that they can be fit in; and in a way that they seem to be made with paper, instead of stone or marble. And they made such statues, breaks, ledges and tendrils that what they did became disproportionate, and often, by placing things sbove things above things they reached such height that the top of a portal touched the roof. This style was discovered by the Goths, who, having laid to waste the ancient buildings and being architects dead because of wars, built afterwards, those who were left, this way, crossing vaults with pointed ribs and peppered italy with these accursed buildings, so that, to be done with it, their manner was entirely left behind. And God preserve any state from resolving to adopt this style and concept, which, being so distant from the beauty of our own buildings, deserves not another word. Let's discuss, instead, vaults." --Tridentinus 16:34, 5 January 2006 (UTC)


 * Just to elaborate on the previous passage, Vasari calls that other style "tedeschi" (German--blanket term used in Italian today as well), and conflates the term later in the paragraph with "Goti" (Goths). These are just various terms used by Vasari to refer to people living north of Tuscany (mostly Germanic, and north of the Alps). We shouldn't confuse Vasari's notion of "Gothic" or "German" with our own stylistic and historical labels, and we shouldn't forget Vasari's Tuscan bias. However, these ideas are helpful in understanding how he and others were classifying things. --Stomme 20:40, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Birth date
Some sources mention July 3, 1511 as birthdate, and others July 30. If anyone have independent reliable refrences, this should be crosschecked. (National Wikipedias disagree too.) This was spotted by Mika Róbert @ HuWp. --grin ✎ 10:20, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Andrea del Sarto
Undid the note about del Sarto and Browning about entry in Lives. This perhaps should be considered for the entry on the book, not about Vasari.Rococo1700 (talk) 22:54, 24 October 2015 (UTC)

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Possible error
"In Florence, Vasari also built the long passage, now called Vasari Corridor, which connects the Uffizi with the Palazzo Pitti on the other side of the river. The enclosed corridor passes alongside the River Arno on an arcade, crosses the Ponte Vecchio and winds around the exterior of several buildings. It was once the home of the Mercado de Vecchio.[12]"

While it is true that the Vasari Corridor connects the Uffizi with the Palazzo Pitti, I am pretty sure that its original purpose was to connect the Palazzo Vecchio, then official government residence to the Uffizi, which was the magistrates office building and then onward to the Palazzo Pitti which was the Medici family residence. In fact, both the Uffizi and the Palazzo Pitti are not on the same side of the Arno River in the part of Florence known as Oltrarno. Any map should confirm this. The article on Wikipedia about the Vasari Corridor also describes its path. AkilinaL (talk) 12:51, 16 June 2020 (UTC)