“A generous indignation that so much talent should remain concealed for so long a time” wrote Giorgio Vasari (born #OnThisDay in 1511) is what motivated him to write his famous Vite de’più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architetti (The Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, 1550; 1568) (https://tinyurl.com/y8mu3nxt), a foundational text in the field of Art History and a highly entertaining story and gossip-laden collection of biographies akin to Plutarch.

Vasari was himself an “eminent” painter, sculptor, and architect before taking up the mode of art which would give him his most lasting glory: biography. He is often described as “the first art historian,” though his greatness amounts to far more than merely being the first. Because he knew many of the artists he wrote about personally (or could speak to people who knew them), Vasari was able to gather a large corpus of invaluable information about the artists of the Italian Renaissance who had been alive during this critical period.

Vasari is not 100% reliable as a historian, nor was he particularly as concerned about documenting his sources as a more modern historian would be. He was also something of a homer for his native Tuscany, and in the earliest edition of the book he claims that he and his fellow artists of Florence are responsible for nearly all of the key artistic advances of the Renaissance, notably giving short shrift to the artists of Florence’s rivals, the Venetians. A second, expanded edition of 1568 gives more attention to Venetian artists, but Vasari’s Tuscan bias has remained subject to criticism.

From a preface to Vasari by J.P. Richter (not the German romancer–darn it!–but G.M.A. Richter’s husband): “On his book almost every subsequent performance in the same department is based; nor do we open a work on the Arts in any language without finding his authority extensively cited.”