The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors Architects, Volume 1

The Lives of the Painters,
Sculptors &
by Giorgio Vasari

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors &
Architects, Volume 1 (of 8), by Giorgio Vasari
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors & Architects, Volume 1 (of
8)
Author: Giorgio Vasari

Release Date: April 24, 2007 [eBook #21212]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIVES
OF THE PAINTERS, SCULPTORS & ARCHITECTS, VOLUME 1
(OF 8)***
E-text prepared by Roy Brown

THE LIVES OF THE PAINTERS, SCULPTORS & ARCHITECTS
by
GIORGIO VASARI
In Eight Volumes
Vol. One

CONTENTS
CIMABUE (1240-1302) ARNOLFO DI LAPO (1232-1310)
BONANNO (fl. 1174-1186 LAPO (1190-1260) NICCOLA AND
GIOVANNI PISANI fl 1205, 1278, 1250-1328) ANDREA TAFI
(1250-1320) GADDO GADDI (1259-1333) MARGARITONE
(1210-1293) GIOTTO (1267-1337) PUCCIO CAPANNA (fl. 1350)
AGOSTINO AND AGNOLO (fl. 1286-1330) STEFANO AND
UGOLINO (1301-1350, 1260-1339) PIETRO LAURATI (died c. 1350)
ANDREA PISANO (1270-1348) BUONAMICO BUFFALMACCO (fl.
1311-1351) AMBRUOGIO LORENZETTI (died c. 1338) PIETRO
CAVALLINI (1259-1334) SIMONE MARTINI AND LIPPO MEMMI
(1285-1344; died 1357)

PREFACE TO THE LIVES
I am aware that it is commonly held as a fact by most writers that
sculpture, as well as painting, was naturally discovered originally by
the people of Egypt, and also that there are others who attribute to the
Chaldeans the first rough carvings of statues and the first reliefs. In like
manner there are those who credit the Greeks with the invention of the
brush and of colouring. But it is my opinion that design, which is the
creative principle in both arts, came into existence at the time of the
origin of all things. When the Most High created the world and adorned

the heavens with shining lights, His perfect intellect passing through
the limpid air and alighting on the solid earth, formed man, thus
disclosing the first form of sculpture and painting in the charming
invention of things. Who will deny that from this man, as from a living
example, the ideas of statues and sculpture, and the questions of pose
and of outline, first took form; and from the first pictures, whatever
they may have been, arose the first ideas of grace, unity, and the
discordant concords made by the play of lights and shadows? Thus the
first model from which the first image of man arose was a lump of
earth, and not without reason, for the Divine Architect of time and of
nature, being all perfection, wished to demonstrate, in the imperfection
of His materials, what could be done to improve them, just as good
sculptors and painters are in the habit of doing, when, by adding
additional touches and removing blemishes, they bring their imperfect
sketches to such a state of completion and of perfection as they desire.
God also endowed man with a bright flesh colour, and the same shades
may be drawn from the earth, which supplies materials to counterfeit
everything which occurs in painting. It is indeed true that it is
impossible to feel absolutely certain as to what steps men took for the
imitation of the beautiful works of Nature in these arts before the flood,
although it appears, most probable that even then they practised all
manner of painting and sculpture; for Bel, son of the proud Nimrod,
about 200 years after the flood, had a statue made, from which idolatry
afterwards arose; and his celebrated daughter-in-law, Semiramis, queen
of Babylon, in the building of that city, introduced among the
ornaments there coloured representations from life of divers kinds of
animals, as well as of herself and of her husband Ninus, with the bronze
statues of her father, her mother-in-law, and her great-grandmother, as
Diodorus relates, calling them Jove, Juno, and Ops--Greek names,
which did not then exist. It was, perhaps, from these statues that the
Chaldeans learned to make the images of their gods. It is recorded in
Genesis how 150 years later, when Rachel was fleeing from
Mesopotamia with her husband Jacob, she stole the idols of her father
Laban. Nor were the Chaldeans singular in making statues, for the
Egyptians also had theirs, devoting great pains to those arts, as is
shown by the marvellous tomb of that king of remote antiquity,
Osimandyas, described at length by Diodorus, and, as the severe

command of Moses proves, when, on leaving Egypt, he gave orders
that no images should be made to God, upon pain of death. Moses also,
after having ascended the Mount, and having found a golden calf
manufactured and adored by his people, was greatly troubled