Giorgio Vasari and The lives of the artists

Who is Vasari?

● Giorgio Vasari was born in Arezzo in 1511

● He studied in Florence and was a friend of Michelangelo

● He was also a painter but mainly an architect

● He is often called the “first art historian” for his lives

● He was the first to use the terms “renaissance” and “gothic art”

● The Lives also included a novel treatise on the technical methods employed in the arts

● The work has a consistent and notorious bias in favour of Florentines and tends to attribute to them all the developments in Renaissance art

● Vasari's Vite has been described as "by far the most influential single text for the history of Renaissance art"

Why The lives?

● It was the wont of the finest spirits in all their actions, through a burning desire for glory, to spare no labour, however grievous, in order to bring their works to that perfection which might render them impressive and marvellous to the whole world;(...) And although, for zeal and desire so worthy of praise, they were, while living, highly rewarded by the liberality of Princes and by the splendid ambition of States, and even after death kept alive in the eyes of the world(...) none the less, it is clearly seen that the ravening maw of time has not only diminished by a great amount their own works and the honourable testimonies of others, but has also blotted out and destroyed the names of all those who have been kept alive by any other means than by the right vivacious and pious pens of writers.

● Recognizing (...),that the names of very many architects, sculptors, and painters, both old and modern, together with innumerable most beautiful works wrought by them, are going on being forgotten and destroyed little by little, and in such wise, in truth, that nothing can be foretold for them but a certain and wellnigh immediate death; and wishing to defend them as much as in me lies from this second death, and to preserve them as long as may be possible in the memory of the living; and having spent much time in seeking them out and used the greatest diligence in discovering the native city, the origin, and the actions of the craftsmen, and having with great labour drawn them from the tales of old men and from various records and writings, left by their heirs a prey to dust and food for worms; and finally, having received from this both profit and pleasure, I have judged it expedient, nay rather, my duty, to make for them whatsoever memorial my weak talents and my small judgment may be able to make.

The decline and the renaissance of the arts.

● But because Fortune, when she has brought men to the height of her wheel, is wont, either in jest or in repentance, to throw them down again, it came about after these things that there rose up in various parts of the world all the barbarous peoples against Rome; whence there ensued after no long time not only the humiliation of so great an Empire but the ruin of the whole, and above all of Rome herself, and with her were likewise utterly ruined the most excellent craftsmen, sculptors, painters, and architects, leaving the arts and their own selves buried and submerged among the miserable massacres and ruins of that most famous city.

● But what brought infinite harm and damage on the said professions, even more than all the aforesaid causes, was the burning zeal of the new Christian religion, which, after a long and bloody combat, with its wealth of miracles and with the sincerity of its works, had finally cast down and swept away the old faith of the heathens, and, devoting itself most ardently with all diligence to driving out and extirpating root and branch every least occasion whence error could arise, defaced or threw to the ground all the marvellous statues, sculptures, pictures, mosaics, and ornaments of the false gods of the heathens (...). And although the Christian religion did not do this by reason of hatred that it bore to the arts, but only in order to humiliate and cast down the gods of the heathens, it was none the less true that from this most ardent zeal there came so great ruin on these honoured professions that their very form was wholly lost.

● But we will now pass over these matters, which are too vague on account of their antiquity, and we will proceed to deal with clearer questions, namely, the rise of the arts to perfection, their decline and their restoration or rather renaissance, and here we stand on much firmer ground.

What is art and what is beautiful?

Let's brainstorm and find some keywords that can describe our

idea of art and beauty

What is beautiful for Vasari?

Let's now find in Vasari's lives some keywords that can explain his point of view about art and

beauty

Arnold Hauser and the social history of art: an alternative interpretation of the renaissance

● Hauser criticizes the idea of Renaissance as expressed by 19th century scholars such as Burckhardt.

● He compares Renaissance and Gothic art in this way: “The important thing in Gothic art is not the subjective viewpoint, not the creative, formative will expressed in the mastering of the material, but the thematic material itself. (…) The picture of reality which it reveals is like a panoramic survey, not a one-sided, unified representation, dominated by a single point of view”.

● “The art of the Renaissance, on the other hand, does not allow him (the viewer) to linger on any detail, to separate any single element from the whole composition, but forces him rather to grasp all the parts at one and the same time”.

● “the whole development of art becomes part of the total process of rationalisation. The irrational ceases to make any deeper impression. The things that are now felt as 'beautiful' are the logical conformity of the individual parts of a whole, the arithmetically definable harmony of the relationships and the calculable rhythm of the composition, the exclusion of discords in the relation of the figures to the space they occupy and in the mutual relationships of the various parts of the space itself”

excerpts from Arnold Hauser, The Social History of Art, Routledge (1992)

Duccio di Buoninsegna1255-1319

Andrea Mantegna1431-1506

These two paintings depict the same scene from the life of Christ: his treason and the

prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. Duccio andMantegna use very different way to representThe same subject: which are the differences?

The renaissance in Italian cinema: Pier Paolo Pasolini's La Ricotta (1)

In summary, the film deals with the film production of the Passion of Jesus with a director acting like Pasolini yet played by Orson Welles. The most biting social critique is shown through the main character of Stracci (meaning "rags"). Stracci is a poor and starving man who works as an extra (ironically, the "good thief") who is not given pity or mercy. Stracci tries everything to get something to eat and he finally does. Unfortunately the

ricotta cheese he avidly gorges on, combined with the awkward position he's forced to assume while being "crucified" in front of the camera prove a fatal combination and he

dies from indigestion. Stracci represents the poor and the marginalized people, "the ones who hunger for bread" who, according to Pasolini, are neglected by a society, which

prides itself on being Christian. Thus, in this view, the Roman Catholicism of Italy is more concerned with status and prominence than helping the poor, a teaching of Christ that

Pasolini admired greatly.

The production of the Passion, done outside of Rome, represents a corrupted society who is interested in superficial beauty and yet possesses a corrupted core. This is

demonstrated with the extras' lack of interest with the film itself, preferring instead to dance to ya-ya twist music, lying around during break time and tormenting Stracci. This is also demonstrated in the elaborate poses the director has set up, evoking the great Italian

Renaissance, particularly of Pontormo and Fiorentino and yet are far from respected.

The renaissance in Italian cinema: Pier Paolo Pasolini's La Ricotta (2)

Deposition from the cross (Rosso Fiorentino - 1521)

A frame from Pasolini's “La Ricotta”2:42

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-FxFN0VTAE