2020-07-30 Thu

One of the foremost artists of 16th century Italy, Giorgio Vasari was born today on 30th July 1511. He was renowned not only as a painter, draftsman, and architect, but also as the author of Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, a series of artist biographies that formed the basis for modern art history. He was also the first to use the term "Renaissance" in print.

Born in the town of Arezzo, which is southeast of Florence, Vasari was worked for the mighty Medici clan. Recommended at an early age by his cousin Luca Signorelli, he became a pupil of Guglielmo da Marsiglia, a skillful painter of stained glass. He was befriended by Michelangelo, whose painting style would influence his own.

In 1529, he visited Rome where he studied the works of Raphael and other artists of the Roman High Renaissance. Vasari's own Mannerist paintings were more admired in his lifetime than afterward. Often called The First Art Historian, Giorgio Vasari was printed on a stamp issued by Italy Postal Department in 2011.

Image Source: colnect.com