GIORGIO VASARI - A PILLAR IN THE HISTORY OF ART!

GIORGIO VASARI (1511-1574) - AN ART HISTORY FOUNDING FATHER

One of the things I love about travelling around Umbria and Tuscany is the fact that there are plenty of places to go associated with the lives of celebrity figures associated with the Italian Renaissance and I don't just mean visiting sites where their work can be seen. It's also fascinating to visit houses where people lived as well as worked, or even to see the place where they were born. For three years we've been going to Arezzo in Tuscany - prompted by the fact that it's the venue for a monthly antiques extravaganza in the streets of the old town. Additionally, however there's a multitude of churches and other buildings to visit - every one with something interesting to see.

Self portrait of Girorgio Vasari dated 1511

Each time we visit the town we mooch round the stalls in the main square - the Piazza Grande - which is surrounded by important and beautiful buildings dating back to the 16th century and beyond. On the top side of the sloping square there's an arresting and beautiful building which has an arched and columned loggia on the ground floor. At the left hand end of it there's a plaque inserted in to the wall of the first pillar which serves as a commemoration to one of the city's most famous and renowned sons - Giorgio Vasari - the architect who designed the 16th century building of which the loggia is part.

Western end of the Vasari loggia containing the
relief panel by Castelluci

Vasari looks out over the street from his window
vantage point.

The plaque is a marble relief depicting Vasari as a mature, bearded man leaning on a window sill looking out. Its 19th century in date and was designed by the Florentine architect Castelluci and sculpted by A Lazzerini using a block of marble from the famous Carrara quarries near Pisa. I can't pass by it without taking a look, for Vasari stays in my mind as one of the founding figures of art history and any student of the subject will have heard of and probably studied his work. Though he was in someways a typical Renaissance man - being a painter, architect and historian he is best known for his famous book "LIVES OF THE MOST EXCELLENT PAINTERS, SCULPTORS AND ARCHITECTS" first published in 1550. Essentially its the very first encylopedia of artists' biographies. The literature on Vasari reveals he was the first writer to us the word "Renaissance" in print; he was also considered responsible for the first use of the term "Gothic Art". The book included a section of technical methods used in painting and there was a second edition in 1568. The artists contemporary to Vasari himself (Vasari was a friend of Michelangelo for instance) appear as the most reliable - those artists he writes about who lived in earlier times such as Giotto, are the most suspect.

"Artists' Lives" may be criticised  by art historian's today for its unreliability, lack of substantiating evidence and bias towards Florentine artists, but the fact is it's an important milestone in the development of the subject. More recent research, based on reliable sources, has led to modification of  Vasari's biographies and today students of art history use his book with caution. The book is still in print today so if you are tempted to delve in Artists' Lives Vasari style you can pop down to Barnes and Noble or Waterstones and get your own glimpse in to this fascinating work.

Frontispiece from Artists' Lives

Vasari was born in Arezzo and he never forgot his home town. In 1540 he bought a two storey house on Via Vente Settembre, just off one side of the Piazza Grande, whilst it was still being built. The house was finally completed in 1548 but the time he spent there was limited as he was constantly required to be in Florence and Rome and in the latter stages of his life he spent most of his time at his permanent residence in Rome. Having said that he undertook decorative schemes inside the property and adorned them with paintings by his own hand and also including works by other artists. He used the property for storing and displaying his collection of works of art.

Vasari's Arezzo house on Via Venti Settembre

The house was enlarged in the 19th century and in the last century it was occupied as a private residence by a number of owners. In 1955 it became an Arezzo museum and extensive restoration was carried out. Today the external appearance of the house is not quite as it was in Vasari's time as various modifications have been made to it in different periods including the insertion of extra doorways. An archive of documents containing correspondence by the writer's own hand together with letters written to him by such artists as Michelangelo can also be found there.

Details from the 16th century interior decoration scheme of
Vasari's house. 

So - this is an intriguing property to visit if you make Arezzo one you your Tuscan destinations. It tends to be overlooked as everyone seems to make a beeline for the church containing Piero della Francesco's "Miracle of the True Cross" fresco cycle. Don't miss that - but do find time to make a pilgrimage to this Palazzo which belonged to one the town's most important sons. And if you visit on the first Sunday of the month you can browse round the antiques market too. I wonder what Vasari would have thought of the assortment of dodgy paintings propped up against the wall of his house on the days when the antiques market is held?

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CHEERS - IAN