Vasari's Words
The 'Lives of the Artists' as a History of Ideas in the Italian Renaissance

Explores through keywords how Vasari's Lives is designed to address a variety of compelling, culturally determined ideas.

Douglas Biow (Author)

9781108472050, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 18 October 2018

256 pages, 41 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.7 x 1.7 cm, 0.56 kg

'This brisk, engaging, and critically engaged study reveals a Vasari we probably suspected was there, but now is seen to have been writing himself.' Paul Baxa, European History Quarterly

In this book, Douglas Biow analyzes Vasari's Lives of the Artists - often considered the first great work of art history in the modern era - from a new perspective.  He focuses on key words and shows how they address a variety of compelling, culturally determined ideas circulating in late Renaissance Italy. The keywords chosen for this study investigate five seemingly divergent, yet still interconnected, ideas. What does it mean to have a 'profession', professione, and possess 'genius', ingegno, in the visual arts? How is 'speed', prestezza, valued among visual artists of the period and how is 'time', tempo, conceptualized in Vasari's narrative and descriptions of visual art? Finally, how is the 'night', notte, conceived and visually represented as a distinct span of time in The Lives? Written in an engaging manner for specialists and non-specialists alike, Vasari's Words places the Lives - a truly foundational and innovative book of Western culture - within the context of the modern discipline of intellectual history.

1. Professione/profession
2. Ingegno/genius
3. Prestezza/speed
4. Tempo/time.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], General & world history [HBG], History [HB], Humanities [H], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD], Renaissance art [ACND], History of art & design styles: c 1400 to c 1600 [ACN], The arts [A]