Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) was born in the small, very ancient town of Tuscany Arezzo, which was located near Florence. He remained for centuries as an architect and as the person who laid the foundation for art criticism.
Studying and getting started
Born into the family of a potter, a smart and capable teenager at the age of 12 became an apprentice of a French artist who did stained glass in a church in Arezzo, Guillaume de Marcilla. The growth of the future artist took place against the backdrop of constant wars in Italy. In it there were city-states, and who just did not aspire to its lands. And the Germans, and the Spaniards, and the French. But the country was forming a national idea, the formation of the Italian language from numerous dialects, it was proud of the great painters and sculptors that educated Europe knew. The masterpieces of Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael have already been created. The great Michelangelo also worked. Already two hundred years before the birth of Giorgio Vasari, Italy was brought up on the ideals of humanism. Such "bustling" in the country affected the formation of a young man who eagerly absorbed all the latest trends that appeared in the country and the spirit of freedom.
Meeting with Michelangelo
A capable thirteen-year-old teenager was noticed. Thanks to Michelangelo who noticed him, Giorgio Vasari is sent to the famous artist Andrea del Sarto. This artist was influenced primarily by Leonardo, he was friendly with Titian and Raphael. He had a wonderful sense of color and color and worked extremely skillfully with chiaroscuro. With other teachers, Giorgio will gain experience in drawing and constructing compositions and perspectives. Vasari Giorgio will later criticize his teacher. He believed that Andrea lacked inspiration to create great creations. Describing his life, Vasari will tell about the grumpy wife of his teacher, who well poisoned the life of him and his students. He will also tell you that del Sarto will die during the plague. However, Vasari himself, having mastered the drawing, will not be able to perceive the ability to use color from his teacher. Vasari will learn architecture and sculpture from fifty-year-old Michelangelo. Vasari will become a biographer and friend of a great artist. In any case, a very reserved and gloomy artist will tell his young friend that his formation as a creator was influenced by the thin air of Tuscany and the clay with which he began to work in the early years of his apprenticeship.
Wanderings
The young Vasari Giorgio is patronized by the Medici, but in 1529 they are expelled from Florence, and the seventeen-year-old artist returns to his hometown. And what awaits him? The father died, we must take care of the family, of younger brothers and sisters. Here he receives orders for frescoes and paintings. The need for money makes him leave Arezzo, head to Pisa and then wander around Italy in search of work. Happiness smiled at the young artist - he met Ippolito Medici, one of his patrons in Florence, and the duke took Vasari with him to Rome.
Return to Florence
Here he works under the auspices of Alessandro Medici and in 1534 he paints his portrait.
It is in this portrait that the painter's coloristic weakness is visible. High Renaissance artists, as a rule, used three colors - scarlet, blue, gold (yellow). And with Giorgio Vasari on a brown stool covered with scarlet drapery, a knight in armor sits. The sky in the depths of the picture is rather grayish, covered with gloomy clouds. The background on which the figure is depicted is uniformly dark. Hair completely merges with him, there are not enough soft transitions of shadows. The armor shines most clearly. The drawing is magnificent, virtuoso, but it has a self-sufficient value. Yes, it is clear that this is a decisive knight, spending his life in the saddle and battles, but in general the portrait is gloomy and dark, imbued with tragedy. But this is exactly how the painter sees his patron. In general, Vasari does not follow nature, does not seek harmony, but puts everything in the accuracy of the lines that give volume, and in exaggerated expressiveness. These techniques are constantly used by Vasari Giorgio. Paintings by contemporaries are popular. But they did not stand the test of time and now represent not so much artistic as historical interest.
After the death of Alessandro Medici, Vasari, already in Bologna, creates one of his best paintings “Meal of St. George ”, which depicts portraits of his contemporaries. They will go into his Biographies.
The great Vasari creation in Florence
Cosimo I Medici ordered Vasari to build a palace that will combine many of the city's services with the embankment of the Arno River. In 1560, construction began on a building that we know as the Uffizi Gallery.
The building has a monumental colonnade and has a modular design with blocks that are separated by pilasters. During the life of Vasari, construction was carried out for fourteen years. It was completed seven years after his death.
Art history
The greatest value for descendants was books by Vasari Giorgio. This is a huge five-volume work.
It is divided into parts devoted to architecture, painting, sculpture and is a treatise on technical methods that are used in various types of arts, and the biographies of the creators themselves. The first edition was published in Florence in 1550. It begins with a dedication to the Grand Duke of Tuscan Cosimo I of the Medici. In this book, Vasari first introduces the concept of "Renaissance", as well as "Early, Middle and High Renaissance" and their origins - "Antiquity, the Middle Ages."
