Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/316

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VASARI


274


VASQUEZ


death. His contemporaries praise him as a highly edition. During the last two years a large number of

educated man and a patron of learning. He was also letters and documents by and relating to Vasari have

a zealous, skilful, and conscientious servant of his been discovered; a summary of these private archives

king and a pious Christian. at Florence, belonging to Count Luciano Rasponi-

Le VabsOR, Lellres et memoires de Francois de Vargas touchant SpinelH, WaS published in April, 1910. In 1912

(e Candle de Trmte (Amsterdam, _ 1700) ; Weiss, Papiers Mr. Sidney J. A. ChurchiU, of Naples, has issUed,


d' etal du Cardinal de Granvelle. VI (Paris, 1846); Villa- NUEVA, Vida literaria, II (London, 1825); Coleccidn de documen' tos ineditos para la hist, de Espaila, IX (Madrid, 1846), 81-406, 518-551; La Fdente, Hist, ecle- sidstica de Espana, V (2nd ed., Madrid, 1874),

2 76-281; DoLLINGEB,

HeitrSge zur politisehen, kirchlichen u. Kultur- gesch., I (Ratisbon, 1862). 265-478; Muller, Das Konklave Pius I V. (Gotha, 1889), 41-43; SusTA, Die rdmische Kurie u. das Konzil von Trienl. I-III (Vienna, 1804-1911), passim.

Klemens Loffler.

Vasari, Giorgio,

painter, architect, and writer, b. at Arezzo, 1511; d. at Florence, 1574. Al- though an artist of considerable repute, Vasari depends for immortality on his remarkable work, 'Vite de' pill eccell


for private circulation, his


^Sa O B3 Dl! S Ha 8^ «5^ "^ ^ '1 '?'^'


' Bibliografia Vasa- riana", the first se- rious attempt to make an accurate bibliography of the works of Vasari, and chronicling 197 sep- arate editions, a.'* wi-ll as references to his drawings, engrav- ings , and MSS.

We now come to Vasari's paintings. Vasari was a kinsman of Luca Signorelli, and Luca's words, "Study well, little kinsman", were re- membered by him all his life, although spoken when he was only a child, and when his father sub- mitted to the old painter some draw- ings by the little pitori, scultori ct archit," boy. He was trained at Arezzo; ho was an infant onthehvesof the most eminent painters, sculptors, and prodigy, exhibiting some of his drawings to Cardinal architects, a work of stupendous industry and the most Pas.serini when only twelve years old, and reciting a important record of the greatest epoch of the world's great part of Virgil's Jjineid. At Florence, young art. Inaccurate in places, owing to the writer's Vasari was placed under jMichelangolo, and later prejudice against certain painters, it is on the whole a became a great friend of Baccio BandineUi. After-


.\L.\CE OF THE CaROVANA, PiSA

Rebuilt by Giorgio Vaaari


marvel of good writing and a curacy, and, withallits defects, is the great treasure-house to which all writers have gone and m list go for informal ion respect- ing the early artists of Italy. 1 1 s first edit ion appeared in 1550 at Florence. It was succeeded bv editions in 1.567, 1568, 1760, LSI 1 ,etc. In 1864Milanesi pub- blished his alphabetical list of thelives, and followed it in 1868 by his important annotated edi- tion, adding considerable infor- mation to Vasari's original work . The book was translated inln English by Mrs. Foster, :i published in Bohn's Librarv m 1846, 18.50, and 18.52. In 1881 the sixth volume of the com- mentary by Richter was issued, and sections of the origin; work, comprising selected lives, were issued by Ellis in 1S!I5, but notably by Blashficld ;incl Hopkins in 1897, with very im- portant notes and appendixes. A new and sumptuous edition of Vasari's work was pro- jected in 1896, to be edited and annotated by Venturi, but only one volume, deal- ing with Gentile da Fabriano and Pisanello, was issued. .A still more importiint edition, to be known as IheQiiaftrocc-ntenary edition in ten volumes, with a transmit ion by Gasloii<l('\'<Te, is ( 19 12) being prepared. \'asari's lesser writings, his letters and " H;igiona- menti", published in 1.588 after his death, and the account of the decoration.s he prepared for the wedding of Francesco de' Medici, are contained in the Milancsi


GioRoio Vasari Solf-portr.ait, UfTizi Galler.v, Florence


wards he went to Rome with Cardinal de' Medici, worked there for some time, and then returned to Arezzo in poor health; eventually he went back to Florence in 1541. He met Cardinal Farnese at Rome, and he it was who urged the painter to write his famous book, which was dedicated to Cosimo de' Medici, the Duke of Florence, whose service Va- sari entered in 1553, and whom he served faithfully to the end of his life. He was responsible for the greater part III I he historical decoration of (he Sala Regia at Rome, and (Aiuimenced frescoes for the cupola of the cathedral at Florence, which he never com- pleted. Several buildings at Pistoia were built after his designs, and his architectural work was intimately associated with the Church of Santa M:iria Novella at FlorencCj with the Pahiee of the Uffizi and the celebrated corridor connecting it with the Pitti which he built across the Arno, and with some rather unsatisfactory work in the Church of Santa Croce. His pictures can best be studied at Florence, but there are fine examples also at Bologna, Lucca, Madrid, Rome, Vienna, Paris, and Dresdi-n.

George Charles Williamson.

Vasco da Gama. See Gama, Vasco da.

Vasquez, Dio.vtsio. Sec Societv of Jesus.