Renaissance

What better way to learn art history than to have it mixed with 500 year old gossip?  Giorgio Vasari’s The Lives of the Artists is a jumble of fact and fiction.  Does this make the first art history book less valuable?  Maybe if I was writing a scholarly paper, but for me, it’s fun romp with the big shots of Renaissance art.

Vasari’s book provides a deeper understanding to Renaissance art without burying the reader in technical jargon.  I love art, I love discussing it, I love reading about it, but I roll my eyes when I see a sentence full of words that I individually understand, but together are a jumble.  The Lives of the Artists exposed the back story of artists and several of their works.  The experience of walking around the Pantheon and Duomo was richer after learning how Brunelleschi crawled all over the Pantheon measuring and calculating in order to crack the ancient secret of building a dome. 

My favorite stories are the legendary ones.  Brunelleschi comment that Donatello’s crucifix made Christ look like a peasant caused him to challenge Brunelleschi to sculpt a better one.  In secret Brunelleschi does and surprises Donatello with it.  In shock, Donatello drops the raw eggs he is carrying for their lunch and stomps away.  Now both crucifixes are placed across town in separate Florentine cathedrals.  I visited the cathedrals consecutively just to better compare crucifixes.  

Vasari explores artistic obsession in The Lives of the Artists.  Vasari’s described Uccello almost complete descent into madness trying to perfect perspective.  The story of Castagno’s plotting murder of Veneziano out of envy and ambition caused me to pay more attention to both of their works even though the story is completely false.  Since Veneziano outlived Castagno by at least four years, it would be difficult for Castagno to kill him.  Although, I wondered if Castagno was so ambitious in life that he would be happy to remembered even if for a false murder, and that Vasari correctly portrayed the essence of the artist.  Read the rest of this entry »