Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects - Review

Trans. Gaston du C. de Vere; Intro. and notes, David Ekserdjian New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. 2 vols. 2,114 pp., $60.00

Published in the middle years of the 16th century and thus almost 500 years old, Vasari's monumental Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects is without question the single greatest book ever written about the history of art. Far more significantly, it is one of the masterpieces of Western literature. Of great moment, therefore, is the recent reprinting of Gaston du C. de Vere's classic translation of Vasari's biographies in the Everyman's Library series, an affordable, handsomely proportioned two-volume boxed set, making the "lives" readily available to scholars and students of art history alike, as to all lovers of literature and amateurs of art. This translation does not include Vasari's technical introductions to the Lives, but it does present all the biographies, whereas before only selections were available in English. Generally accurate and highly accessible, de Vere's 1912 translation gives the reader a sense of Vasari's style in the original, for it is sensitive to the periodic structure of the author's writing, to the rhythms and cadences of Vasari's prose.

David Ekserdjian's introductory remarks are lively and informative. They whet the reader's appetite for Vasari's delightful and highly instructive text, as they introduce the reader to many of its author's themes. The introduction encourages the reader to engage Vasari's work, which "inspires us with a burning desire" to see or see again the art Vasari describes.

Vasari's Lives can now be read with the adroit analysis of Patricia Rubin's important new book, Giorgio Vasari, which focuses on Vasari as a historian. Copiously illustrated, Rubin's book is beautifully produced, reflecting the typically high standards of the Yale University Press. Her study is richly informative, comprehensive in its bibliography, shrewd in many of its judgments, and learned in the habits of Vasari's mind. As an explanation of Vasari's intentions, of how he gathered information, of his use of historical sources, of how he composed and revised his Lives, Rubin's book will be the standard work for some time to come. Synthesizing the vast modern scholarship on Vasari, Rubin ably analyzes the Lives within the framework of its author's own biography. Her book is a work to be read slowly and with great care, for on every page there is so much information, so many thoughtful observations, that one is invited to reflect, to ponder. Such rumination is well worth the effort, since Rubin gives us access to a shrewd historian and critic, to a formidably discerning eye, to a remarkable display of language in the description of art. Rubin's is a book not just for scholars of Renaissance art but for all art historians, who will learn a great deal about Vasari's sources, about the deep traditions of thought from which our discipline was formed. It is an admirable companion to the Lives.

Although Vasari was a prolific and successful painter and architect, his accomplishment as an artist and builder is eclipsed by his writing. The Uffizi, the government "offices" built by Vasari for the Duke of Florence, are familiar to all art historians, but his architecture is for the most part known only to specialists. Art historians who are interested in the social history of art, in matters of patronage, will find much to ponder in Leon Satkowski's brief, well-written, and inviting survey of Vasari's career as an architect and a courtier. Like Rubin's book, Satkowski's enhances our understanding of Vasari's delineation of court life in the Lives. It is also an exposition of a number of fascinating architectural projects of the 16th century, enriching our understanding of the world in which Vasari flourished and to which he gave shape.

Satkowski's historical analysis, informative as it is suggestive, is here accompanied by the brilliant photographs of Ralph Lieberman, which are interpretations in their own right. Although someone at Princeton University Press fell asleep at the wheel, allowing many of these photographs to be reproduced without any attention to their original values of light and shade, Lieberman's work, which depends on shrewd viewpoints, reveals a great deal about Vasari's buildings. The acumen of Lieberman's visive interpretations is especially apparent in his suite of images of the Uffizi, which conveys a sense of this important urban scheme as previous photographs have not done. Satkowski analyzes the typology, execution, and meaning of Vasari's project in relation to Michelangelo's Campidoglio and to the scheme of the Piazza of San Marco in Venice. Along these lines, we need to consider more fully how the space of the Uffizi is also linked to Sansovino's shaping of the area between his new library in Venice and the Palazzo Ducale. Satkowski's and Lieberman's combined efforts are a significant contribution to our understanding of comparative urban planning in cinquecento Italy that points toward an even broader synthesis.