Giorgio Vasari - the founder of art history

Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) was born in a small, very ancient town of Tuscany Arezzo, which was near Florence. He remained in the centuries as an architect and as a man who initiated art criticism.

Learning and getting started

Born in a potter's family, a clever and capable teenager at the age of 12 became apprentice to a French artist who made stained glass windows in a church in Arezzo, Guillaume de Marcilla. The growth of the future artist took place against the backdrop of constant wars in Italy. In it there were city-states, and on its land who did not pretend. And the Germans, and the Spaniards, and the French. But the country was developing a national idea, the formation of an Italian language from numerous dialects, it was proud of the great painters and sculptors that educated Europe knew. The masterpieces of Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael were already created. The great Michelangelo was also creating. Already two hundred years before the birth of Giorgio Vasari, Italy was brought up on the ideals of humanism. This "bubbling" in the country affected the formation of a young man who greedily absorbed all the latest trends emerging in the country and the spirit of freedom.

Meeting with Michelangelo

A talented thirteen-year-old was noticed. Thanks to Michelangelo, who noticed him, Giorgio Vasari sent to the famous artist Andrea del Sarto. This artist was influenced primarily by Leonardo, he was friendly with Titian and Raphael. He possessed a wonderful sense of color and color and worked extremely skillfully with chiaroscuro. Other teachers Giorgio will gain experience in drawing and composing composition and perspective. Vasari Giorgio will later criticize his teacher. He believed that Andrea did not have enough inspiration to create great creations. Describing his life, Vasari will tell about his wife's quarrelsome wife, who poisoned life well for him and his students. He also tells that del Sarto will die during the plague epidemic. However, Vasari himself, having mastered the drawing, will not be able to perceive from his teacher the ability to use color. Architecture and sculpture Vasari will learn from the fifty-year-old Michelangelo. Vasari will become a biographer and a friend of the great artist. In any case, a very closed and gloomy artist will tell his young friend that his development as a creator was influenced by the rare air of Tuscany and clay, with which he began to work in the early years of his apprenticeship.

Wandering

The young Vasari Giorgio is patronized by the Medici, but in 1529 they are expelled from Florence, and the seventeen-year-old artist returns to his native city. And what awaits him? Father died, we must take care of our family, our younger brothers and sisters. Here he receives orders for painting murals and paintings. The need for money forces him to leave Arezzo, go to Pisa and then wander around in Italy in search of work. Happiness smiled at the young artist - he met Ippolito de 'Medici, one of his patrons in Florence, and the duke took Vasari with him to Rome.

Return to Florence

Here he works under the auspices of Alessandro de 'Medici and in 1534 he painted his portrait. It is in this portrait that the painter's weakness is visible. The artists of the high Renaissance, as a rule, used three colors - scarlet, blue, gold (yellow). And Giorgio Vasari, sitting on a brown stool, covered with scarlet drapery, is a knight in armor. The sky in the depths of the picture, rather, grayish, closed sullen clouds. The background on which the figure is depicted is uniformly dark. The hair completely merges with it, there are not enough soft transitions of shadows. Most brightly shine armor. The drawing is magnificent, virtuosic, but it has a self-sufficient meaning. Yes, it can be seen that this is a decisive knight, carrying out life in the saddle and battles, but as a whole the portrait is dark and dark, infiltrated with tragedy. But that's how the painter sees his patron. In general, Vasari does not follow nature, does not seek harmony, but puts everything in the accuracy of lines that give volume, and in exaggerated expressiveness. These techniques are constantly used by Vasari Giorgio. Pictures from contemporaries are popular. But they could not stand the test of time and now are not so much artistic as historical interest. After the death of Alessandro de 'Medici, Vasari already in Bologna creates one of his best paintings "St. George ", which depicts the portraits of his contemporaries. They will be included in his "Biographies".

The great creation of Vasari in Florence

Cosimo I of the Medici ordered Vasari to build a palace that would unite many services of the city from the quay of the Arno River. Since 1560 the construction of a building that we know as the Uffizi Gallery has begun . The building has a monumental colonnade and has a modular construction with blocks that are separated by pilasters. During the life of Vasari, construction was carried out for fourteen years. It was completed seven years after his death.

Art History

The greatest value for descendants was in Vasari Giorgio's book. This is a huge five-volume work. It is divided into parts dedicated to architecture, painting, sculpture and is a treatise on technical methods that are used in various arts, and the biographies of creators. The first edition was published in Florence in 1550. It begins with the dedication to the Grand Duke of Tuscan Cosimo I of the Medici. In this book, Vasari first introduces the concept of "Renaissance", as well as "Early, Middle and High Renaissance" and their origins - "Antiquity, the Middle Ages".

How Giorgio Vasari built biographies

On the basis of a novel, already familiar to the contemporary reader, Vasari writes biographies of artists who represent the pride of the Italian nation. He informs the biography of a sculptor, artist or architect and gives an analysis and features of his work. All works of the creator are necessarily indicated. Since Giorgio Vasari himself is an artist, then, as an art critic, he analyzes the drawing, school, manner of performance with knowledge. For each novel, the writer carefully collected the smallest facts from the artist's life. In each article there is a portrait, sometimes made by Vasari himself. The life-designer tried to trace the connection of each artist with the people. If he describes the images of biblical characters created by one or another master, then Giorgio Vasari seeks to connect these images with the daily life of the artist. The book opens biography and creativity Giotto, and ends - Michelangelo. But the second edition, published eighteen years later, is supplemented by amendments, clarifications and new biographies. A total of about two hundred have been published. This work of Messire Vasari for many centuries determined the ways of art history as a science. His view on art has not lost its relevance in our days.

The master died in Florence in 1574.