Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 06

Vasari, Giorgio, 1511-1574Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.5
Word count
594K words
Chapters
60

Tags

English Originals Artists Art HistorySculpture ArtCritiques of MastersGroup BiographyIllustrated GuideTraditional AestheticsArchitectural AestheticsRenaissance

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 06 (of 10)Author: Vasari, Giorgio, 1511-1574,Language: English, Class: N: Fine Arts, Release Date: Mar 27, 2009

Editor's review

This is the English edition of Volume 06 of Vasari's ten-volume Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, a classic of art history. Vasari records artists' lives and works in biographical form, combining documentary value with narrative interest, and offers an important window into Renaissance conceptions of art. This volume is one part of the whole work: readers should note that it is not a standalone complete history but one volume in a series. The Project Gutenberg edition preserves the original text and is convenient for searching and excerpting. It is best read within the framework of the whole work and with art-historical background, so as to understand Vasari's evaluative criteria and the limits of his era. It suits art history students, art lovers, and researchers needing public-domain texts, as a resource that offers both reference and pleasure rather than a beginner's guide.

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Reading tips

  1. First read the general preface or introduction to the whole work to clarify Volume 06's place in the series.
  2. Use general art history references to look up corresponding works and historical context as you read each biography.
  3. Keep a notebook recording Vasari's evaluative language and criteria.
  4. Compare with other Renaissance art sources to assess the reliability of the biographies as historical evidence.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
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  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
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  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60

FAQ

Can Volume 06 be read on its own? It can be browsed on its own, but it is one volume in a ten-volume series, not a standalone complete history. It is advisable to first understand the structure of the whole work and Vasari's overall intent, then read this volume within the series framework; this makes it easier to understand the connections among biographies and the author's evaluative criteria.
Does this book have illustrations? This is an English electronic text released by Project Gutenberg; it mainly provides text and is not notable for plates. If you need images of the artworks, consult art catalogues or museum resources separately and combine text with images for a better reading experience.
Can Vasari's accounts be cited directly as historical fact? They should not be cited without qualification. Vasari's biographies carry personal judgments and period biases, and the reliability of some details has long been debated. Researchers should treat them as important historical sources and historical texts, cross-check them against other documents, and distinguish fact, rumor, and the author's evaluation.
How difficult is the original English edition to read? The text is in English, in an older writing style, with long sentences and many names and proper nouns. Readers with some English reading ability can make progress with reference works and search functions; if English is difficult, read relevant Chinese art history material first and then attempt comparative reading.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Vasari, Giorgio, 1511-1574 Author

Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) was an Italian painter and architect of the Renaissance, and is best known to posterity as a writer on art history. This library holds 11 of his works, chiefly various volumes of The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors & Architects, including Volume 1 and Volumes 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10. The work presents biographies of painters, sculptors, and architects one by one, describing their lives and creations while commenting on artistic techniques and the tastes of the age. It is regarded as a founding work of Western art-historical writing and offers a precious and far-reaching source for understanding Renaissance art. Its style combines documentary detail with critical judgment; the narrative is vivid and the portraits are distinct, and despite anecdotes and personal bias it has long served as a basic text for studying the art of the period. Public information about the details of his life is limited, so no further elaboration is given here.