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Vasari’S the Lives of the Artists

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Vasari’S the Lives of the Artists 1 Excerpts from Giorgio Vasari’s The Lives of the Artists Compiled by Jennifer Weiland from the translation by Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1991). From the chapter on Cimabue: The endless flood of misfortunes which swept over and drowned the wretched country of Italy had not only destroyed everything that could really be called a building but, even more importantly, had completely wiped out its population of artists, when, in the year 1240, as God willed it, there was born in the city of Florence to the Cimabue, a noble family of those times, a son Giovanni, also named Cimabue, who shed first light upon the art of painting. While he was growing up, he was judged by his father and others to have a fine, sharp mind, and he was sent to Santa Maria Novella to a master, a relative who was teaching grammar there to the novices, so that he could be trained in letters. But instead of paying attention to his literary studies, Cimabue, as if inspired by his nature, spent the whole day drawing men, horses, houses, and various other fantasies in his books and papers. And Fortune was favourable to his natural inclination, because some Greek painters were summoned to Florence by the rulers of the city for no other purpose than to revive in Florence the art of painting which was at that time not so much in disarray as completely lost. From the chapter on Giotto: That very same debt painters owe to Nature, which continuously serves as an example to those who strive always to do their best by selecting her best and most beautiful parts in order to reproduce and imitate them, is also owed, in my opinion, to Giotto, the Florentine painter; for when the methods and outlines of good painting had been buried for so many years by the ruins of war, he alone, although born among inept artists, revived through God's grace what had fallen into an evil state and brought it back to such a form that it could be called good. And it was truly an extraordinary miracle that such an ignorant and incompetent age could have inspired Giotto to work so skillfully that drawing, of which men during those times had little or no knowledge, came fully back to life through his efforts. * * * * * And when he had reached the age of ten, after having shown an extraordinary liveliness and quickness of intellect in all his actions even while still a child---so that he delighted not only his father but everyone there at the farm and beyond it who was acquainted with him--Bondone gave him some sheep to watch over. And while they wandered about the farm, grazing in one place or another, Giotto, led on by his natural inclination towards the art of drawing, would continually sketch something from the world of nature or something that he had imagined upon flat stones or upon the ground or sand. One day Cimabue was going about his business between Florence and Vespignano, and he came upon Giotto who, while his sheep were grazing, was sketching one of them in a lifelike way with a slightly pointed rock upon a smooth and polished stone without having learned how to draw it from anyone other than Nature. This caused Cimabue to stop in amazement, and he asked Giotto if he would like to come to work with him. The young child replied that if his father would allow it, he would willingly do so. Cimabue therefore asked Bondone, and he lovingly gave his consent and allowed Cimabue to take Giotto to Florence, After his arrival there and in a brief time, helped by his natural talent and Cimabue's teaching, not only did the young boy equal the style of his master, but he became such an excellent imitator of Nature that he completely banished that crude Greek style and revived the modern and excellent art of painting, introducing good drawing from live natural models, something which had not been done for more than two hundred years. 2 * * * * * It is said that when Giotto was still a young man with Cimabue, he once painted upon the nose of a figure that Cimabue had completed a fly which looked so natural that when his master returned to continue his work, he tried more than once to drive the fly away with his hand, convinced that it was real, before he realized his mistake. From the chapter on Lorenzo Ghiberti: [Concerning the north doors of the baptistery in Florence] And it can truthfully be said that this work is perfect in every detail and is the most beautiful the world had ever seen among the ancients and the moderns. And Lorenzo should quite rightly have received high praise, for one day Michelangelo Buonarroti stopped to look at this work, and when he was asked what he thought of it and if the doors were beautiful, he replied: 'They are so beautiful that they would be do nicely at the entrance to Paradise.' This was a truly appropriate tribute, pronounced by someone capable of judging such a work. Lorenzo certainly deserved to execute these doors, since he had begun them at the age of twenty and had worked on them for forty years with the most painstaking efforts. From the chapter on Masaccio: It is Nature's custom, when she creates a person of great excellence in any profession, to create not just one man alone but another as well, at the same time and in the same part of the world as his competitor, so that both of them may profit from each other's talent and from the rivalry. Besides the singular advantage this brings to the two rivals themselves, this phenomenon also kindles beyond all measure the desire of the artisans who follow after them to strive as hard as they can, with continual study and effort, to attain the same honour and glorious reputation for which they hear their predecessors given high praise every day. And how true this is we can observe from the fact that Florence produced in the same period Filippo Brunelleschi, Donatello, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Paolo Uccello, and Masaccio, all most excellent artisans in their areas, who not only rid themselves of the crude and awkward styles which had prevailed up to their time, but also stimulated and excited with their beautiful works the minds of those who succeeded them to such an extent that the work in these arts was brought back to the greatness and perfection we witness in our own times. Thus, we are, in truth, greatly indebted to those first artisans who through their labours showed us the true path to follow to reach the highest level of excellence. And as far as good style in painting is concerned, we are primarily indebted to Masaccio, for it was Masaccio who, in desiring to acquire fame, realized that painting is nothing other than the art of imitating all the living things of Nature with their simple colours and design just as Nature produced them, so that anyone who fully follows Nature should be considered a splendid artisan. From the chapter on Filippo Brunelleschi: [Concerning the commission for the dome of the cathedral in Florence] As a result, the consuls, trustees, and citizens, encouraged in this fashion, all met together and discussed the project with the architects. But with his strong arguments, they were all beaten and won over by Filippo. It is said that the argument over the egg arose during the meeting in the following way. They wanted Filippo to explain his intentions in detail and to show his model, as they had shown theirs, something he did not want to do, and he in turn proposed to both foreign and Florentine masters that whoever could stand an egg upright upon a marble slab should execute the dome, since in this way their intelligence would be revealed. Therefore, when Filippo produced an egg, all those masters tried to make it stand upright, but none of them found the way to do it. Then they asked Filippo to do it, and he graciously took the egg, cracked its bottom on the marble and made it stand upright. The artisans loudly complained that they could have done the same thing, and, laughing, Filippo answered that they would also have learned how to vault the dome if they had seen his model and his plans. And so they decided 3 that Filippo should have the responsibility of executing this project, and he was told to give more details to the consuls and trustees. From the chapter on Donatello: ...Donatello took extraordinary pains in carving a wooden crucifix which, upon completing it and believing that he had produced a very rare object, he showed to Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, his very dear friend, in order to have his opinion of it. Filippo, who expected to see something much better from Donatello's description of it, smiled a bit when he saw it. When Donatello saw this, he begged Filippo for the sake of their friendship to give him his honest opinion of it, and so, Filippo, who was very candid, replied that it seemed to him as if Donatello had placed a peasant upon the cross and not a body like that of Jesus Christ, which was most delicate and represented, in all its parts, the most perfect human being born. Hearing himself criticized--and even more sharply than he had imagined--rather than receiving the praise he had hoped for, Donatello answered: 'If it were as simple to create something as to criticize, my Christ would look like Christ to you and not like a peasant; take some wood and try to make one yourself.' Without saying another word, Filippo returned home, and without anyone knowing, he set his hand to making a crucifix, seeking to surpass Donatello in order to vindicate his own judgement, and after many months he brought it to the highest degree of perfection.
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