Overview

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.

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9781032921280

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Reviews

’Interpreting Vasari is key to understanding the Renaissance, and Cast ... is an able editor for this Anglophone collection of essays ... this volume is blessed with actual footnotes and an ample bibliography. Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above.’ Choice 'David Cast ably introduces the multi-talented Vasari, fully setting the stage for the sixteen essays that follow analyzing individual biographies or Vasari’s account of a city’s artistic production. Other essays deal with more general topics like the issue of Vasari’s collaborators in writing the Lives or Vasari as an artist, designer and collector, or aesthetic terminology in the Lives. The span is comprehensive and yet comprised of specialized essays that primarily focus on Vasari as a writer, a choice that makes sense as the biographies are his major legacy. Like Cast, the essay writers are leading authorities in the field, making this an indispensable analysis of Vasari’s contribution.' Sarah Blake McHam, Rutgers University, USA '...brings together an immensely wide-ranging, multi-faceted, and thought-provoking series of essays on a whole range of aspects of the Lives of the Artists. It is bound to prove essential reading for anyone seriously interested in the history of the history of Italian Renaissance art.' David Ekserdjian, University of Leicester, UK '... a rich, prismatic experience of Vasari as author and literato ... there are some true gems of contemporary scholarship to be found here.' Seventeenth-Century News 'A collection of deeply scholarly essays on a key figure in Renaissance studies and his legacy as art historian, artist and academician - the coal face of art history ... everyone interested in art scholarship should keep an eye on Ashgate publications.' Brian Sewell, London Evening Standard '[A] varied and balanced account of recent Vasari scholarship, focusing on research produced by English-speaking scholars.' Burlington Magazine

’Interpreting Vasari is key to understanding the Renaissance, and Cast ... is an able editor for this Anglophone collection of essays ... this volume is blessed with actual footnotes and an ample bibliography. Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above.’ Choice 'David Cast ably introduces the multi-talented Vasari, fully setting the stage for the sixteen essays that follow analyzing individual biographies or Vasari’s account of a city’s artistic production. Other essays deal with more general topics like the issue of Vasari’s collaborators in writing the Lives or Vasari as an artist, designer and collector, or aesthetic terminology in the Lives. The span is comprehensive and yet comprised of specialized essays that primarily focus on Vasari as a writer, a choice that makes sense as the biographies are his major legacy. Like Cast, the essay writers are leading authorities in the field, making this an indispensable analysis of Vasari’s contribution.' Sarah Blake McHam, Rutgers University, USA '...brings together an immensely wide-ranging, multi-faceted, and thought-provoking series of essays on a whole range of aspects of the Lives of the Artists. It is bound to prove essential reading for anyone seriously interested in the history of the history of Italian Renaissance art.' David Ekserdjian, University of Leicester, UK '... a rich, prismatic experience of Vasari as author and literato ... there are some true gems of contemporary scholarship to be found here.' Seventeenth-Century News 'A collection of deeply scholarly essays on a key figure in Renaissance studies and his legacy as art historian, artist and academician - the coal face of art history ... everyone interested in art scholarship should keep an eye on Ashgate publications.' Brian Sewell, London Evening Standard '[A] varied and balanced account of recent Vasari scholarship, focusing on research produced by English-speaking scholars.' Burlington Magazine

Author Information

David J. Cast is Professor of the History of Art at Bryn Mawr College, USA.

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