Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, 1550 & 1568

VASARI, LE VITE
Lives of the Artists DE PIV ECCELENTI ARCHITETTI, PITTORI, ET
SCVLTORI ITALIANI, DA CIMABUE A' TEMPI
NOSTRI: DESCRITTE IN LINGUA TOSCANA, DA
GIORGIO VASARI PITTORE ARETINO. [1550]
LE VITE
DE' PIU ECCELLENTI PITTORI, SCULTORI, E
ARCHITETTORI, Scritte Da M. Giorgio Vasari, Pittore et
Architectto Aretino [1568]
[Dedication to Cosimo Duke of Florence]
[To the Three Arts of Design]:Dell’ Architettura; Delia
Scultura;
Delia Pittura.*

PREFACE TO THE WHOLE WORK PROEMIO DI TVTTA L'OPERA.

1) It was the wont of the honest spirits in all their actions,
through a burning desire for glory, to spare no labour, however
grievous, in order to bring their works to that perfection which
might render them impressive and marvellous to the whole
world; nor could the humble fortunes of marry prevent their
energies from attaining to the highest rank, whether in order to
live in honour or to leave in the ages to come eternal fame for
all their rare excellence, [p. 13]
2) Pondering over this matter many a time in my own mind,
and recognizing, from the example not only of the ancients but
of the moderns as well, that the names of very many architects,
sculptors, and painters, both old and modern, together with
innumerable most beautiful works wrought by them, are going
on being forgotten and destroyed little by little, and in such
wise, in truth, that nothing can be foretold for them but a
certain and well-nigh immediate death,
3) and wishing to defend them as much as in me lies from this
second death, and to preserve them as long as may be possible
in the memory of the living; and having spent much time in
seeking them out and used the greatest diligence in discovering
the native city, the origin, and the actions of the craftsmen,
4) and having with great labour drawn them from the tales of
old men and from various records and writings, left by their
heirs a prey to dust and food for worms; and finally, having [p.
13] received from this both profit and pleasure, I have judged it
expedient, nay rather, my duty, to make for them whatsoever
memorial my weak talents and my small judgment may be able
to make.
In honour, then, of those who are already dead, and for the
benefit, for the most part, of all the followers of these three
most excellent arts. Architecture. Sculpture, and Painting. I will
write the Lives of the craftsmen of each according to the times
wherein they lived, step by step from Cimabue down to our
own time; not touching on the ancients save in so far as it may
concern our subject, seeing that no more can be said of them
than those so many writers have said who have come down to
our own age. I will treat thoroughly of many things that
appertain to the science of one or other of the said arts; p. 13—14
Soleano gli spiriti egregij in tutte le azzioni loro, per uno
acceso desiderio di Gloria, non perdonare ad alcuna fatica,
quantunche grauissima,per condurre le opere loro a quella
perfezzione, che le rendesse stupende, & marauigliose a tut
to il modo: Ne la bassa Fortuna di molti poteua ritardare i loro
sforzi, dal peruenire a sommi gradi, si per viuere honorati,
& si per lasciare ne tempi auenire eterna Fama d'ogni rara
loro eccellenza.
La qual cosa piu volte meco stesso considerando, &
conoscendo non solo con 1'esempio degli antichi, ma de
moderni ancora, che i nomi di moltissimi Vecchi, &
Moderni Architetti, Scultori, & Pittori insieme con infinite
bellissime opere loro, in diuerse parti d'ltalia si vanno
dirnenticando & consumando a poco a poco, & di una
maniera per il vero, che ei non sene puo giudicare altro, che
vna certa morte molto vicina;
Per difenderli il piu che io posso da questa seconda morte, &
mstenergli piu lungamente che sia possibile nelle memorie
de viui, hauendo speso moltissimo tempo in cercar quelle,
vsato diligenzia grandissima in ritrouare la Patria, Forigine,
& le azzioni degli Artefici,
& con fatica grande ritrattole dalle relazioni di molti
huomini vecchi, & da diuersi ricordi & scritti, lasciati dagli
heredi di quelli in preda della poluere, & cibo de tarli. Et
riceuutone finalmente & vtile & piacere ho giudicato
conueniente, anzi debito mio fame quella memoria, che il
mis debole ingegno, & il poco giudizio potra fare.
A honore dunque di coloro che gia sono morti, & benefrzio
di cutti gli studiosi principalmente di queste tre Arti
eccelentissime Architcttvra. Scvltvra. & Pittvra. scriuerro le
Vite delli Artefici di ciascuna, secondo i tempi, che ei sono
stati di mano in mano da Cimabve insino a hoggi; Non
toccando altro degli antichi se non quanto facesse al
proposito nostro, per non se ne poter dire piu che se ne
habbino detto quei tanti Scrittori che sono peruenuti alia eta
nostra. Trattero bene di molte cose, che si appartengono al
Magistero di qual si e 1'una delle Arti dette;
[Omitted: The Dispute between Painting and Sculpture}
5) / say, then, that sculpture and painting are in truth sisters,
born from one father, that is, design, at one and the same birth,
and have no precedence one over the other, save insomuch as
the worth and the strength of those who maintain them make
one craftsman surpass another., [pp. 22-23]
Dico adunque, che la Scultura, & la Pittura per il vero sono
sorelle; note di vn Padre, che e il Diseeno, in vno solparto,
& advn tempo: & non precedono I'una alia altra, se non
quanto la virtu. & la forza di coloro, che le portano addosso,
fa-passare 1'vno Artefice innanzi a 1'altro...
11-Jan-ll p. 1/5 Tutor: PatrickDoorly
Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, 1550 & 1568
6) I will begin, then, with ARCHITECTURE, as the most
universal and the most necessary and useful to men...
Afterwards, discoursing of SCULPTURE, I will tell how
statues are wrought, the form and the proportion that are
looked for in them, and of what kind are good sculptures, with
all the most secret and most necessary precepts.
Finally, treating of PAINTING, I will speak of
draughtsmanship, of the methods of colouring, of the perfect
execution of any work, of the quality of the pictures
themselves, and of whatsoever thing appertains to painting; of
every kind of mosaic, of niello, of enamelling, of damascening,
and then, lastly, of the printing of pictures. And in this way I
am convinced that these my labours will delight those who are
not engaged in these pursuits, and will both delight and help
those who have made them a profession, [pp. 24-25]
Comincerommi dunque dall'ARCHITETTURA, come da la
pixi vniuersale, & piu necessaria & vtile agli huomini,.
Appresso ragionando della SCULTURA, diro come le statue
si lauorino; la forma & la proporzione che si aspetta loro; &
quali siano le buone sculture, con tutti gli ammaestramenti
piu segreti, & piu necessarij.
Vltimamente discorrendo della PITTURA, diro del Disegno;
de modi del colorire; delperfettamente condurre le cose',
della qualita di esse Pitture; & di qualunche cosa che da
questa dependa: De' Musaici d'ogni sorte; del Niello; de gli
Smalti; de' lauori alia Damaschina; et finalmente poi delle
stampe delle pitture. Et cosi mi persuade, che queste fatiche
mie, diletteranno coloro che non sono di questi esercizij. Et
diletteranno, & gioueranno [Page 9] a chi ne ha fatto
professione.
 PREFACE TO THE LIVES [PART I] PP. 27- PROEMIO DELLE VITE
47 [The Origins of Painting and Sculpture}
1) However, leaving behind us this part, as too uncertain by
reason of its antiquity, let us come to the clearer matters of
their perfection, ruin, and restoration, or rather resurrection.
whereof we will be able to discourse on much better grounds,
[p. 33]
2) And to this clear testimony is borne by the works of
sculpture and of architecture that were wrought in the time of
Constantine in Rome, and in particular the Triumphal Arch
raised for him by the Roman people near the Colosseum,
wherein it is seen that in default of good masters they not only
made use of marble groups made at the time of Trajan, but
also of the spoils brought from various places to Rome. And
whosoever knows that the votive offerings in the medallions.
that is, the sculptures in half-relief, and likewise the prisoners,
and the large groups, and the columns, and the mouldings, and
the other ornaments, whether made before or from _spoils. are
excellently wrought, knows also that the works which were
made to fill up by the sculptors of that time are of the rudest, as
also are certain small groups with little figures in marble below
the medallions and the lowest base wherein there are certain
victories and certain rivers between the arches at the sides,
which are very rude and so made that it can be believed most
surely that by that time the art of sculpture had begun to lose
something of the good. And there had not yet come the Goths
and the other barbarous and outlandish peoples who destroyed,
together with Italy, all the finer arts, [pp.33-34]
(Architecture suffered less harm. pp. 34-44)
3) Wherefore there came to arise new architects, who brought
from their barbarous races the method of that manner of
buildings that are called by us today German; and they made
some that are rather a source of laughter for us modems than
creditable to them, ... all in a barbarous manner, and rather rich
and vast than •well-conceived or of good architecture, [p. 40]
4) For since the excellent early craftsmen had been killed in
these wars, as has been said, to the remainder of these Greeks,
old but not ancient, there had been left nothing but elementary
outlines on a ground of colour: and to this at the present day
witness is borne by an infinity of mosaics, which, wrought
throughout all Italy by these Greeks, are to be seen in every old
church in any city whatsoever of Italy, and above all in the
Pero lasciando questa parte indietro; troppo per 1'antichita
sua incerta, vegnamo alle cose piu chiare della loro
perfezzione. & Rouina. & Restaurazione. & per dir meglio
Rinascita. delle quali con molti miglior fondamenti potreno
ragionare.
Et di cio possono rendere chiara testimonanza Fopere di
Scultura, & d'Architettura, che furono fate al tempo di
Gostantino in Roma, e particularmente. 1'Arco Trionfale,
fattogli dal popolo Romano al colosseo, doue si vede, che
per mancamento di Maestri buoni. non solo si seruirono
delle stone di Marmo fatte al tempo di Traiano, ma delle
spoglie ancora, condotte di diuersi luoghi a Roma; E chi
conosce, che i voti, che sono ne' tondi. cioe le Sculture di
mezzo rilieuo, & parimente i prigioni, & le storie grandi. &
le colonne, & le cornici, & altri omamenti fatti prima, & di
spoglie sono eccellentemente lauorati', conosce anchora, che
1'opere, le quali furon fatte per ripieno da gli Scultori di quel
tempo, sono goffissime; Come sono alcune storiette di figure
piccole di marmo sotto i tondi, & il basamento da pie, doue
sono alcune Vittorie. Et fra gli Archi dalle bande certi fiumi,
che sono molto goffi. & si fatti, che si puo credere
fermamente, che insino allora, I'Arte della Scultura haueua
cominciato a perdere del buono. Et non dimeno non erano
ancora venuti i Gotti, & 1'altre nazioni barbare, & straniere,
che distrussono insieme con 1'Italia tutte FArti migliori.
Onde ne vennero a risorgere nuoui Architetti, che delle loro
barbare nazioni fecero il modo di quella maniera di edifizi,
c'hoggi da noi son chiamati Tedeschi, iquali faceuano
alcune cose piu tosto a noi modemi ridicole, che a loro
lodeuoli; ... pur di maniera barbara, & piu tosto ricchi, &
grandi, che bene intesi, o di buona architettura.
Perche essendo in quelle guerre morti gl 'eccellenti primi
artefici, come si e detto, al rimanente di que'Greci vecchi. &
non antichi altro no era rimaso, che le prime linee in vn
campo di colore: come di cio fanno fede hoggidi infiniti
musaici, che per tutta Italia lauorati da essi greci si veggono
pei' ogni vecchia chiesa di qual si voglia citta d'ltalia, &
massimamente nel duomo di Pisa, in San Marco di Vinegia,
11-Jan-11 p. 2/5 Tutor: Patrick Doorly
Giorgio Vasari. Lives of the most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, 1550 & 1568
Duomo of Pisa, in S. Marco at Venice, and in other places as
well, and so, too, they kept making many pictures in that
manner, with eyes staring, hands outstretched, and standing on
tiptoe, as may still be seen in S. Miniato without Florence, ...
wherein they have certain figures for corbels to support the
roof, so rude and vile, so misshapen, and of such a grossness of
manner, that it appears impossible that worse could be
imagined, [pp. 45-46]
& ancora in altri luoghi, & cosi molte pitture, continouando
feccro di quella maniera con occhi spiritati. & mam apcrtc in
punta di piedi. come si vede ancora in S. Miniato fuor di
Fiorenza, ... doue hanno per mensole certe figure per regger
il tetto, cosi goffe. & siree. & tanto malfatte. di grossezza. &
di maniera. che par' impossibile. che imaginare peggio si
poi:esse.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND PART SECONDA PARTE PROEMIO
1) WHEN first I undertook to write these Lives, it was not mv
Qvando io presi primieramente a descriuere queste vite; Non
intention to make a list of the craftsmen, and an inventory, so to
fu mia intenzione. fare vna nota delli Artefici. & vno
speak, of their works, nor did I ever judge it a worthy end for
inuentario. diro cosi, delFopere loro...
these my labours... [pp. 245]
... Perla qualcosa hauendo io presa a scriuer la istoria de
nobilissimi Artefici, per giouir all'arti quanto patiscono le
forze mie; & appreso o per honorarle ... mi sono ingegnato
non solo di dire quel che hanno fatto, ma di scegliere ancora
discorredo il meglio da'l buono: & rottimo da'l migliore. &
nor.are. vn poco diligentemente i modi, le arie. le maniere. i
tratti. & le fantasie de' Pittori, & degli Scultori.
... having undertaken to write the history of the most noble
craftsmen in order to assist the arts in so far as my powers
permit, and besides that to honour them, ... I have striven not only
to say what these craftsmen have done, but also, in treating of
them, to distinguish the better from the good and the best from the
better, and to note with no small diligence the methods, the
feeling, the manners [styles], the characteristics. and the fantasies
of the painters and sculptors... [p. 246]
[Describes the three styles in sculpture and painting outlined by Pliny.}
The First Age
2) Thus it is seen that the Greek manner, first through the
beginning made by Cimabue, and then with the aid of Giotto,
was wholly extinguished; and there arose a new one, which I
would fain call the manner of Giotto ... Giotto, in particular,
gave better attitudes to his figures, and revealed the first effort
to give a certain liveliness to the heads and folds to his
draperies, which drew more towards nature than those of the
men before him; and he discovered, in part, something of the
gradation and foreshortening of figures. Besides this, he made
a beginning with the expression of emotions, so that fear, hope,
rage, and love could in some sort be recognized; and he
reduced his manner [style], which at first was harsh and rough,
to a certain degree of softness: and although he did not make
the eyes with that beautiful roundness that makes them lifelike,
and with the tear-channels that complete them, and the hair
soft, and the beards feathery, and the hands xvith their due
joints and muscles, and the nudes true to life, let him find
excuse in the difficulty' of the art and in the fact that he saw no
better painters than himself: and let all remember, amid the
poverty of art in those times, the excellence of judgment in his
stories, the observation of feeling, and the subordination of a
very ready natural gift, seeing that his figures were subordinate
to the part that they had to play. [p. 250]
3) But whosoever considers the character of those tunes, the
dearth of craftsmen and the difficulty of finding good
assistance, will hold them [the artificers of the first age] not
merely beautiful, as I have called them, but miraculous, and
will take infinite pleasure in seeing the first beginnings and
those sparks of excellence that began to be rekindled in
painting and sculpture, [p. 251]
The Second Age
4) Wherefore, with the study and the diligence of the great
Filippo Brunelleschi, architecture first recovered the measures
La Prima Eta
Cosi si vede che la maniera Greca, prima co'l principio di
Cimabue, poi con 1'aiuto di Giotto, si spense in tutto: & ne
nacque vna nuoua la quale io Volentieri chiamo maniera di
Giotto...
Et Giotto in particolare fece migliori attitudini alle sue
figure; & mostro qualche principio di dare vna viuezza alle
teste. & piego i panni che traeuano piu alia natura, che non
quegli innanzi: & scoperse in parte qualcosa de lo sfuggire,
& scortare le figure. Oltre a questo egli diede principio a gli
affetti che si conoscesse in parte il timore, la speranza, Fira,
& lo amore. Et ridusse a vna morbidezza la sua maniera, che
prima era, & ruuida, & scabrosa; & se non fece gli occhi con
quel bel girare, che sa il viuo: & con la fine de suoi
lagrimatoi; et i capegli morbidi; & le barbe piumose; & le
mani con quelle sue nodature, & muscoli; et gli ingnudi
come il vero; scusilo la difficulta dell'arte. et il non hauer
visto pittori migliori di lui. Et pigli ogniuno in quella
pouerta dell'arte, & de tempi, la bonta del giudizio nelle sue
istorie; Fosseruanza dell'arie, e Fobedienzia di vna naturale
molto facile, perche pur si vede, che le figure obbediuano, a
quul che elle haueuano a fare.
Ma, chi considerara la qualita di que' tempi, la carestia de
gli Artefici, la difficulta de' buoni aiuti; le terra non belle,
come ho detto io, ma miracolose: & hara piacere infmito di
vedere i primi principij, & quelle scintille di buono\ che
nelle pitture, e sculture cominciauono a risuscitare.
La Seconda Eta
Perche prima con 16 studio, & con la diligenza del gran
Filippo Brunelleschi FArchitettura ritrouo le misure, & le
11-Jan-ll p. 3/5 Tutor: Patrick Doorly
Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the, most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, 1550 & 1568
and proportions of the ancients... [p. 252]
5) ... that new manner, as it will be seen in this Second Part,
among which the figures of Jacopo della Qriercia have more
movement, more grace, more design, and more diligence... But
the greatest advance came from Lorenzo Ghiberti in the work
of the gates of S. Giovanni, wherein he showed such invention.
order, manner, and design, that his figures appear to move and
to have souls. But as for Donato, although he lived in their
time, / am not -wholly sure whether I ought not to place him in
the third age, seeing that his works challenge comparison with
the good works of the ancients; but this I will say, that he can
be called the pattern of the others in this second age, having
united in his own self all the qualities that were divided singly
among many, for he brought his figures to actual motion,
giving them such vivacity and liveliness that they can stand
beside the works of to-day, and, as I have said, beside the
ancient as well. [pp. 253-54]
6) The same advance was made at this time by painting, from
which that most excellent Masaccio swept away completely
the manner of Giotto in the heads, the draperies, the buildings.
the nudes, the colouring, and the foreshortenings. all of which
he made new, bringing to light that modern manner which was
followed in those times and has been followed up to our own
day by all our craftsmen, and enriched and embellished from
time to time with better grace, invention, and ornament... [p.
254]
7) Having chosen the aforesaid Jacopo for the honour of
beginning this Second Part, I will follow the order of the
various manners' and proceed to lay open, together with the
Lives themselves, the difficulties of arts so beautiful, so
difficult, and so highly honoured, [p. 255]
proporzioni degli antichi
che in quella rinouazione della maniera si lauorarono; come
si vedra in questa seconda parte doue le figure di lacopo
deHa Quercia Sanese, hanno piu moto: & piu grazia. et piu
disegno. et diligenza... Ma piu vi aggiunse Lorenzo
Ghiberti nell'opera delle porte di S. Giouanni doue mostro
inuenzione. ordine. maniera. et disignio. che par, che le sue
figure si muouino, & habbiano Fanima. Ma non mi risoluo
in tutto: ancora, che fussi ne lor tempi. Donato, se io me lo
voglia metier fra i terzi, restando 1'opre sua a paragone degli
antichi buoni, diro bene, che in questa parte si puo chiamar
lui regola gli altri, per hauer in se solo le parti tutte che a
una a una erano sparte in molti: poi, che e ridusse in moto le
sue figure dando loro vna certa viuacita, e prontezza; che
posson stare, e con le cose moderne, & come io dissi, con le
antiche medesimamente.
Et il medesimo augumento fece in questo tempo la pittura,
de laquale rEccellentissimo Masaccio leuo in tutto la
maniera di Giotto, nelle teste. ne' panni. ne' casamenti. negli
ingniudi. nel colorito. negli scorti. che egli rinouo, & messe
in luce quella maniera modema, che fu in que'tempi, e sino
a hoggi, e da tutti i nostri Artefici seguitata: e di tempo in
tempo con miglior grazia, inuenzione, ornament!,...
Et poi, che ho eletto lacopo sopradetto per honorato
principle di questa seconda parte, seguitando Fordine delle
maniere, verro aprendo sempre colle vite medesime, la
dificulta di si belle, dificili, & honorarissime Arti.
PREFACE TO THE THIRD TERZA PARTE.
PART PROEMIO.
1) Truly great was the advancement conferred on the arts of
architecture, painting, and sculpture by those excellent masters
of whom we have written hitherto, in the Second Part of these
Lives, for to the achievements of the early masters they added
rule, order, proportion, draughtsmanship. and [style]: not, in
deed, in complete perfection... [p.617]
2) Now although the masters of the second a ge improved our
arts greatly with regard to all the qualities mentioned above, yet
these were not made by them so perfect as to succeed in
attaining to complete perfection, for there was wanting in their
RULE a certain freedom which, without being of the rule,
might be directed by the rule and might be able to exist without
causing confusion or spoiling the order; which ORDER had
need of an invention abundant in every respect, and of a certain
beauty maintained in every least detail, so as to reveal all that
order with more adornment. In PROPORTION there was
wanting a certain correctness of judgment, by means of which
their figures, without having been measured, might have, in
due relation to their dimensions, a grace exceeding
measurement. In their DRAWING there was not the perfection
of finish, because, although they made an ami round and a leg
straight, the muscles in these were not revealed with that sweet
and facile grace which hovers midway between the seen and
the unseen, as is the case with the flesh of living figures; nay,
they -were crude and excoriated, which made them displeasing
to the eye and gave hardness to the manner, [p. 618]
Veramente grande augumento fecero alle Arti della
Architettura, Pittura, & Scultura quelli eccellenti Maestri,
che noi habbiamo descritti sin qui, nella Seconda Parte di
queste Vite; Aggiugnendo alle cose de' primi, Regola.
Ordine. Mi sura. Disegno. & Maniera'. se non in tutto
perfettamente...
Ma se bene i secondi agomentarono grandemente a queste
arti tutte le cose dette di sopra, elle non erano pero tanto
perfette, che elle finissimo di aggiugnere all'intero della
perfezzione. Mancandoci ancora nella REGOLA, vna
licenzia, che non essendo di regola, fosse ordinata nella
regola; & potesse stare senza fare confusione, o guastare
L'ORDINE. ILQUALE haueua bisogno d'vna inuenzione
copiosa di tutte le cose, & d'vna certa bellezza continuata in
ogni minima cosa, che mostrasse tutto quell'ordine con piu
ornamento. Nelle MISURE mancaua vno retto giudizio, che
senza. che le figure fussino misurate. hauessero in quelle
grandezze, ch'elle eran fatte, vna grazia, che eccedesse la
misura. Nel DISEGNO non v'erano gli estremi del fine suo,
perche se bene e faceuano vn braccio tondo, & vna gamba
diritta; non era ricerca con muscoli con quella facilita
graziosa, & dolce. che apparisce fral uedi. & non vedi:
come fanno la came, & le cose viue: Ma elle erano crude, &
scorticate, che faceua difficolta a gli occhi, & durezza nella
maniera.
11-Jan-ll p. 4/5 Tutor: Patrick Doorly
Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the most Excellent Painters. Sculptors and Architects, 1550 & 1568
3) After them, indeed, their successors were enabled to attain to
it through seeing excavated oul of the cartli certain antiquities
cited by Pliny as amongst the most famous, such as the
Laocoon, the Hercules, the Great Torso of the Belvedere,
and likewise the Venus, the Cleopatra, the Apollo, and an
endless number of others, which, both with their sweetness and
their severity, with their fleshy roundness copied from the
greatest beauties of nature, and with certain attitudes which
involve no distortion of the whole figure but only a movement
of certain parts, and are revealed -with a most perfect grace,
brought about the disappearance of a certain dryness, hardness,
and sharpness of manner... [p. 619]
4)... people ran like madmen to this new and more lifelike
beauty, for it seemed to them quite certain that nothing better
could ever be done. But their error was afterwards clearly
proved by the works of Leonardo da Vinci, who, giving a
beginning to that third manner which -we propose to call the
modern - besides the force and boldness of his DRAWING,
and the extreme subtlety wherewith he counterfeited all the
minutenesses of nature exactly as they are -with good rule,
better order, right proportion, perfect drawing, and divine
grace, abounding in resources and having a most profound
knowledge of art, may be truly said to have endowed his
figures with motion and breath, [p.620]
5) But more than all did the most gracious Rafael of Urbino,
who, studying the labours of the old masters and those of the
modem, took the best from them, and, having gathered it
together, enriched the art of painting with that complete
perfection which was shown in ancient times by the figures of
Apelles and Zeuxis; nay. even more, if we may make bold to
say it, as might be proved if we could compare their works
with his. Wherefore nature was left vanquished by his colours;
and his invention was facile and peculiar to himself, as may be
perceived by all who see his painted stories, which are as vivid
as writings... [p. 620]
6) But he who bears the palm from both the living and the
dead, transcending and eclipsing all others, is the divine
Michelangelo Buonarroti, who holds the sovereignty not
merely of one of these arts, but of all three together. This
master surpasses and excels not only all those moderns who
have almost vanquished nature, but even those most famous
ancients who without a doubt did so gloriously surpass her,
and in his own self he triumphs over modems, ancients, and
nature, who could scarcely conceive anything so strange and so
difficult that he would not be able, by the force of his most
divine intellect and by means of his industry, draughtsman
ship, art, judgment, and grace, to excel it by a great measure;
and that not only in painting ... but also in the highest
perfection of bodies in the round, with the point of his chisel.
... they have also given the final form to these three most noble
arts. [p. 622]
7)
Bene lo trouaron poi dopo [Page [36]] loro gli altri, nel
veaer cauar ruora dl terra cette anticaglle, cltate da Fllnlo
delle piu famose il Lacoonte, 1'Hercole, & il Torso grosso
di Bel Vedere, cosi la Venere, la Cleopatra, lo Apollo, &
infinite altre le quali nella lor dolcezza, & nelle lor'asprezze
con termini camosi, & cauati dalle maggior bellezze del
uiuo; con certi atti, che non in tutto si storcono, ma si vanno
in eerte parti mouendo, & si mostrano con vna graziosissima
grazia. Et furono cagione di leuar via vna certa maniera
secca, & cruda, & tagliente...
Et i popoli nel vederla, corsero, come matti a questa bellezza
nuoua, & piu viua: Parendo loro assolutamente, che e'non si
por.esse giamai far meglio. Ma lo errore di costoro
diraostrarono poi chiaramente le opere di Lionardo da
Vinci, il quale dando principio a quella terza maniera, che
noi vogliamo chiamare la moderna, oltra la gagliardezza. &
brauezza del DISEGNO, & oltra il cotraffare
sottilissimamente tutte le minuzie della natura cosi a punto,
come elle sono; con buona regola; miglior ordine; retta
misura, disegno perfetto, & grazia diuina; abbondantissimo
di copie, & profondissimo di Arte; dette veramente alle sue
figure il moto, & il fiato.
Ma piu di tutti il graziosissimo Raffaello da Vrbino, il
quale studiando le fatiche de' Maestri vecchi, & quelle de'
modemi: prese da tutti il meglio; & fattone raccolta, arrichi
FArte della Pittura di quella intera perfezzione, che hebbero
anticamente le figure d'Apelle, & di Zeusi, & piu, se si
potesse dire, o mostrare 1'opere di quelli a questo paragone.
La onde la natura restd uinta da i suoi colon, & Finuezione
era in lui si facile, & propria quato puo giudicare chi vede le
storie sue, le quali sono simili alii scritti...
Ma quello, che fra i morti, & viui porta la palma, et trascede,
& ricuopre tutti e il Diuino Michel' Agn. ilqual no solo tien
il principato di vna di queste arti. ma di tutte tre insieme.
Costui supera, & vince no solamete tutti costoro, c 'hano
quasi che vinto gia la natura, ma quelli stessi famosiss.
antichi, che si lodatamete fuor d'ogni dub bio la super arono'.
& unico si triofa di quegli, di questi, et di lei: No
imaginadosi appena quella, cosa alcuna si strana, et tato
difficile; ch'egli c61a virtu del diuiniss. ingegno suo;
mediate Findustria, il disegno, 1'arte, il giudizio, et la grazia,
di gra luga no la trapassi. Et no solo nella Pittura,... ma
nell'estrema rotodita ancora de' corpi: & co la puta del suo
scarpello, ...hdno ancora data I'vltimo termine a queste tre
nobiliss. arti...
English quotations from Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Painters,
Sculptors and Architects, trans. Gaston de Vere (1912; London:
Everyman's Library, 1996).
* Translated and published separately as Giorgio Vasari,
Vasari on Technique, trans. Louisa S. Maclehose (1907; New
York: Dover, 1960).
The complete Italian text of Vasari's Lives (both 1550 &
1568 editions) can be downloaded free from:
http://www.liberlibcr.it/biblioteca/v/vasari/index.htm
For Pliny the Elder, Natural History, chs 34 on bronze
sculptors, 35 on painters, 36 on sculptors in stone, see
www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/collections Greek & Roman.