By Anne Leader
Painter, architect, collector, and influential author Giorgio Vasari died on this day in 1574 in Florence. A successful painter and architect in the service of Grand Duke Cosimo I de’Medici, Vasari is best known today for hisLives of the Artists, a collection of biographies from Cimabue through his autobiography. Published in two editions (1550/1568), the text has had a profound impact on the development of connoisseurship, art history, and Italian Renaissance studies.
Reference: Julian Kliemann and Antonio Manno. “Vasari.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T088022pg1>
St. Luke Painting the Virgin, after 1565, fresco, Santissima Annunziata, Florence
Self-Portrait, between 1550 and 1567. Florence: Uffizi.
Last Judgment, 1572-9, Florence: Duomo.
Cosimo I de’ Medici among the Artists of his Court (1563), fresco ceiling painting by Giorgio Vasari, Sala dei Cinquecento, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence; Photo credit: Scala/Art Resource, NY