Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects

Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects

Giorgio Vasari’s book is an example of the heroic view of the Renaissance, a view that portrays the era’s prominent figures as superhumans with extraordinary abilities. Many intellectuals and artists of the Renaissance recognized their own genius and saw themselves as fighting against the “darkness” of the Middle Ages. The Renaissance brought back realism in the arts, a new interest in secularism, and, arguably, the birth of the modern individual. Vasari’s book details the lives of the artists of the Renaissance whom he considers most important, and his work is very important in shaping our modern understanding of the views of Renaissance artists’ contemporaries. Vasari details the influence of patronage on the lives of the artists and the developments that each man contributed to the art world of his time.

Giorgio Vasari

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1550