A review by readingoverbreathing
Lives of the Artists: Volume 1 by Giorgio Vasari

3.0

"Design, however, is the foundation of both these arts, or rather the animating principle of all creative processes; and surely design existed in absolute perfection before the Creation when Almighty God, having made the vast expanse of the universe and adorned the heavens with His shining lights, directed His creative intellect further, to clear air and the solid earth. And then, in the act of creating man, He fashioned the first forms of painting and sculpture in the sublime grace of created things."

I picked this up in a used bookshop with great curiosity after having read so many snippets and fragments from it as well as studying Vasari himself for art history at university. I thought it'd be interesting to read this pivotal work in its entirety and learn a little more about the Renaissance artists I know so well from one of their contemporaries.

This is certainly a dense work, denser, perhaps, than I had anticipated, but I found its level of detail, and Vasari's commitment to the facts, incredibly impressive. The vignettes he offered up were amusing, and I was surprised to learn just how much overlap there was across the lives of many of these artists.

I think it would be a stretch to really say I enjoyed this, as, again, it was pretty dense. My main issue was that Vasari spent a lot of time going into detail describing specific works, which, even with ones I was familiar with, I found difficult to visualize. I suppose at the time when you couldn't just quickly Google these pieces, this would have been helpful, but I honestly found these descriptions uninteresting and even sometimes rather overwhelming. I think reading an illustrated edition of this would be a wonderful experience, much more fulfilling than just reading a blanket description; I suppose I could have Googled this pieces as they arose for myself, but I honestly didn't really go to that effort.

All in all, I'm glad I picked this up, though, again, for the modern reader, I'd recommend seeing if you can find an illustrated edition that includes the works Vasari references, as I think it would allow for a far more rounded appreciation of both this text and the lives of the artists celebrated here themselves.