The Ashgate Research Companion to Giorgio Vasari

354 Pages·2014·5.011 MB·English

by  David J. Cast, David J. Cast

ASHGATE

RESEARCH
COMPANION
The AshgATe ReseARch comp Anion
To gioRgio V AsARi
The Ashgate Research Companion to Giorgio Vasari brings together the world’s foremost
experts on Vasari as well as up-and-coming scholars to provide, at the 500th anniversary
of his birth, a comprehensive assessment of the current state of scholarship on this
important—and still controversial—artist and writer. The contributors examine the life
and work of Vasari as an artist, architect, courtier, academician, and as a biographer of
artists. They also explore his legacy, including an analysis of the reception of his work
over the last five centuries.
Among the topics specifically addressed here are an assessment of the current
controversy as to how much of Vasari’s ‘Lives’ was actually written by Vasari; and
explorations of Vasari’s relationships with, as well as reports about, contemporaries,
including Cellini, Michelangelo and Giotto, among less familiar names. The geographic
scope takes in not only Florence, the city traditionally privileged in italian Renaissance
art history, but also less commonly studied geographical venues such as siena and
Venice.
ASHGATE

RESEARCH
COMPANION
The Ashgate Research Companions are designed to offer scholars and graduate students
a comprehensive and authoritative state-of-the-art review of current research in a
particular area. The companions’ editors bring together a team of respected and
experienced experts to write chapters on the key issues in their speciality, providing a
comprehensive reference to the field.
The Ashgate Research
companion to giorgio Vasari
Edited by
DAVi D J. cA sT
Bryn Mawr College, USA
© The editor and contributors 2014
All rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
David J. cast has asserted his right under the copyright, Designs and patents Act, 1988, to
be identified as the editor of this work.
published by
Ashgate publishing Limited Ashgate publishing company
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Farnham Burlington, VT 05401-3818
surrey, gU9 7pT UsA
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Ashgate research companion to giorgio Vasari / by David J. cast.
pages cm
includes bibliographical references and index.
isBn 978-1-4094-0847-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) -- isBn 978-1-4724-1391-8 (ebook) --
isBn 978-1-4724-1392-5 (epub)
1. Vasari, giorgio, 1511-1574--criticism and interpretation. 2. Art, Renaissance--
historiography. i. cast, David, 1942-, editor of compilation.
n6923.V32A83 2014
709.2--dc23
2013005985
isBn 9781409408475 (hbk)
isBn 9781472413918 (ebk)
isBn 9781472413925 (epub)
V
printed in the United Kingdom by henry Ling Limited,
at the Dorset press, Dorchester, DT1 1hD
contents
List of Illustrations   vii
Notes on Contributors xi
Acknowledgements   xv
Introduction   1
David J. Cast
1 Vasari’sViteasaCollaborativeProject 11
Charles Hope
2 VasariandVincenzoBorghini 23
Robert Williams
3 GiorgioVasari:Artist,Designer,Collector 41
Liana de Girolami Cheney
4 Vasari’sVitaofGiotto 77
Norman E. Land
5 Vasari’s1568LifeofMasaccio 91
Perri Lee Roberts
6 WhoistheAuthorofMichelangelo’sLife? 107
William E. Wallace
7 Vasari’sLiteraryArtificeandtheTriumphofMichelangelo’sDavid 121
Paul Barolsky
8 BizarrePaintersandBohemianPoets:PoeticImitationandArtistic
RivalryinVasari’sBiographyofPierodiCosimo 129
Karen Hope Goodchild
9 GiorgioVasariandtheArtofSiena 145
Ann C. Huppert
10 VeniceandthePerfectionoftheArts 169
Marjorie Och
The Ashgate Research Companion to Giorgio Vasari
11 GiorgioVasariandFrancescoSalviati:FriendshipandArt 195
Melinda Schlitt
12 RivalswithaCommonCause:Vasari,Cellini,andtheLiterary
FormulationoftheIdealRenaissanceArtist 215
Victoria C. Gardner Coates
13 VasarionImitation 223
Sharon Gregory
14 VasariandtheRhetoricofDecorum 245
Robert W. Gaston
15 RewritingVasari 261
Lisa Pon
16 Vasari’sLivesandtheVictorians 277
Hilary Fraser
Bibliography   295
Index   325
vi
illustrations
2 Vasari and Vincenzo Borghini
2.1 giorgio Vasari and collaborators, general view of the salone dei
cinquecento, palazzo Vecchio, Florence. photo credit: scala / Art
Resource, nY 28–29
2.2 giorgio Vasari and collaborators, studiolo of Francesco i, palazzo
Vecchio, Florence. photo credit: scala / Art Resource, nY 31
2.3 giorgio Vasari, Federico Zuccaro, and collaborators, complete view
of the fresco in the cupola of the Duomo (santa maria del Fiore), Florence.
Photo credit: Nicolo Orsi Battaglini / Art Resource, NY 32
3 Giorgio Vasari: Artist, Designer, Collector
3.1 giorgio Vasari, Self-Portrait, 1567, woodcut, from Le vite de’ più eccellenti
pittori, scultori, e architetti (Florence: giunti, 1568). photo credit: author 42
3.2 giorgio Vasari, Artist Drawing (Man in a Cloak Writing), ca. 1550, Gabinetto
dei Disegni e delle Stampe, Uffizi, Florence, N.14274F. Photo credit: Scala /
Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali / Art Resource, NY (ART345517) 43
3.3 giorgio Vasari, page from Il Libro dei Disegni, mounted after 1554. giorgio
Vasari with drawings by Filippino Lippi, Botticelli, and Raffaellino del Garbo,
pen and brown ink, and gray wash, on light buff paper. Photo credit: National
gallery of Art, Woodner collection, patron’s permanent Fund 1991.190.1 44
3.4 cheney’s reconstruction of giorgio Vasari’s piano nobile, casa Vasari,
1542–54, Arezzo (1. chamber of Fame; 2. chamber of Apollo; 3. Kitchen;
4. corridor of ceres; 5. chapel; 6. chamber of Abraham; 7. chamber of
Fortune). photo credit: author 45
3.5 giorgio Vasari, chamber of Fortune, 1548, casa Vasari, Arezzo.
photo credit: author 46
3.6 cheney’s reconstruction of giorgio Vasari’s sala Fiorentina, 1559–62,
casa Vasari, Florence. photo credit: author 47
The Ashgate Research Companion to Giorgio Vasari
3.7 Giorgio Vasari, Sala Fiorentina, 1559–62, Casa Vasari, Florence.
Photo credit: author 47
3.8 Giorgio Vasari, Fine Arts (Endpiece), 1550, woodcut, from Le vite de’
più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architetti (Florence: Torrentina, 1550).
Photo credit: author 54
3.9 Giorgio Vasari, Fine Arts (Frontispiece), 1567, woodcut, from Le vite de’
più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architetti (Florence: Giunti, 1568).
Photo credit: author 56
5 Vasari’s 1568 Life of Masaccio
5.1 Masaccio, Tribute Money, 1424–26, Brancacci Chapel, Santa Maria
del Carmine, Florence. Photo credit: Scala / Art Resource, NY 100–101
5.2 Masaccio, Saint Peter Baptizing the Neophytes, 1424–26, Brancacci
Chapel, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence. Photo credit: Alfredo
Dagli Orti / The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY 102
8 Bizarre Painters and Bohemian Poets: Poetic Imitation and
Artistic Rivalry in Vasari’s Biography of Piero di Cosimo
8.1 Piero di Cosimo, Venus, Mars and Cupid, ca. 1505, oil on poplar wood,
72 × 182 cm, Inv. 107. Photo credit: bpk, Berlin / Gemäldegallerie,
Staatliche Museen / Jörg P. Anders / Art Resource, NY 136–137
8.2 Piero di Cosimo, The Discovery of Honey by Bacchus, ca. 1499, oil on
panel, 79.2 × 128.5 cm, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester MA,
Museum Purchase 138–139
9 Giorgio Vasari and the Art of Siena
9.1 Baldassarre Peruzzi, Villa Farnesina, Rome.
Photo credit: David H. Friedman 147
9.2 Duccio di Buoninsegna, Rucellai Madonna, 1285.
Photo credit: Alinari / Art Resource, NY 153
9.3 Ambrogio Lorenzetti, The Purification of the Virgin, 1342.
Photo credit: Scala / Art Resource, NY 156
9.4 Palazzo Pubblico, Siena.
Photo credit: Grant Hildebrand 161
viii
Illustrations
9.5 Giorgio Vasari, Conquest of the Fortress near the Porta Camollia.
Photo credit: Alinari / Art Resource, NY 164–165
10 Venice and the Perfection of the Arts
10.1 Giorgio Vasari, Justice, 1541–42, Accademia, Venice. Photo credit:
Cameraphoto Arte, Venice / Art Resource, NY 174–175
10.2 Giorgio Vasari, Patience, 1541–42, Accademia, Venice. Photo credit:
Cameraphoto Arte, Venice / Art Resource, NY 176–177
11 Giorgio Vasari and Francesco Salviati: Friendship and Art
11.1 Jacopo Pontormo, Two Men with a Passage from Cicero’s
“On Friendship”, ca. 1524, oil on panel, Fondazione Giorgio
Cini – Galleria di Palazzo Cini, Venice, no. 40025 203
11.2 Portrait of Francesco Salviati, woodcut, from Giorgio Vasari, Le vite de’
più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori, 1568. Photo credit: author 211
11.3 Francesco Salviati, Triumph of Camillus (detail), Sala dell’Udienze, Palazzo
Vecchio, Florence, 1543–48. Photo credit: Scala / Art Resource, NY 213
11.4 Francesco Salviati, Triumph of Camillus (detail reversed), Sala dell’Udienze,
Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, 1543–48. Photo credit: Scala / Art Resource, NY 213
15 Rewriting Vasari
15.1 Title page of William Aglionby, Painting illustrated in three dialogues,
containing some choice observations upon the art (London: J. Gain, 1685).
Bridwell Library Special Collections, Perkins School of Theology,
Southern Methodist University 262
15.2 Marginal annotation in brown ink by Lázaro Díaz del Valle in
Giorgio Vasari, Le vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori
(Florence: Giunta, 1568), 2: 288. Bridwell Library Special Collections,
Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University 266
15.3 Opening text of Giorgio Vasari, La vita del gran Michelagnolo (Florence:
Giunta, 1568). Typ 525 68.865, Houghton Library, Harvard University 271
15.4 Title page of Vita di M. Iacopo Sansovino, Scultore, & Architetto eccellentißimo
della Serenß. Rep. di Venetia (Venice: Jacopo Sansovino the Younger, 1571).
Misc. 119,2. Courtesy of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana 272
ix