THE LIVES OF THE ARTISTS
By GIORGIO VASARI
Translated by
GASTON du C. DE VERE
The Lives of the Artists
By Giorgio Vasari
Translated by Gaston du. C. de Vere
Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-7084-5
eBook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-7085-2
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Cover Image: a detail of “St. Luke Painting the Virgin”, by Giorgio Vasari (1511-74), c. 16th century, (fresco) / Photo © Raffaello Bencini / Bridgeman Images.
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CONTENTS
ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO AND DOMENICO VENEZIANO
GIORGIO VASARI TO THE CRAFTSMEN IN DESIGN
Cimabue
GIOVANNI CIMABUE
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
By the infinite flood of evils which had laid prostrate and submerged poor Italy there had not only been ruined everything that could truly claim the name of building, but there had been blotted out (and this was of graver import) the whole body of the craftsmen, when, by the will of God, in the city of Florence, in the year 1240, there was born, to give the first light to the art of painting, Giovanni, surnamed Cimabue, of the family, noble in those times, of Cimabue. He, while growing up, being judged by his father and by others to have a beautiful and acute intelligence, was sent, to the end that he might exercise himself in letters, to a master in S. Maria Novella, his relative, who was then teaching grammar to the novices of that convent; but Cimabue, in place of attending to his letters, would spend the whole day, as one who felt himself led thereto by nature, in drawing, on books and other papers, men, horses, houses, and diverse other things of fancy; to which natural inclination fortune was favorable, for certain Greek painters had been summoned to Florence by those who then governed the city, for nothing else but to restore to Florence the art of painting, which was rather out of mind than out of fashion, and they began, among the other works undertaken in the city, the Chapel of the Gondi, whereof to-day the vaulting and the walls are little less than eaten away by time, as may be seen in S. Maria Novella beside the principal
