VASARI AND THE ORIGINS OF ART HISTORY

VASARI AND THE ORIGINS OF
ART HISTORY
So where does art history as the academic study of art making actually
begin? Depending on your perspective, there are various points
art theories and art histories 20
of departure. Many art historians and historiographers (those
concerned with the history of the academic discipline) date it to the
appearance of Vasari’s The Lives of the Artists (1550 and 1568).
Giorgio Vasari (1511–74), painter, architect and courtier, chronicled
the work of Italian artists, describing their painting styles and patrons,
leaving thumbnail sketches of their personalities and behaviour. A
keen self-publicist, Vasari’s account promoted its author’s native
Tuscany as a centre of artistic excellence to rival Greece and Rome.
Its author ranked the artists he listed according to the alleged
quality and standard of their work. This reflected Vasari’s belief that
art passed from primitive, through good to excellent, or what has
been described as a ‘single narrative of evolutionary progress’
(Edwards 1999: 3). In other words, the development of art was
perceived as qualitative – from the Middle Ages it got better and
better until it reached a peak of perfection in the work of
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) and Raphael (1483–1520).