Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IV THE "LIVES OF THE PAINTERS" Rome--Study of architecture--Palazzo Farnese cornice--Lucca--Rome again--Naples--Sala della Cancelleria--Inception of the Lives-- Doubts as to when they were really begun--Their progress--Caro's letter--Visit to Rimini--Purchase of a house in Arezzo--Feast of Ahasuerus--Contemporary opinion of Vasari. THE attractions of Venice proved so great that it was only the persuasive arguments of Gherardi which prevailed to draw Vasari away from a city where " good drawing was neglected for the pursuit of brilliant colouring." On the 16th of August, as Giorgio himself relates, he returned to Tuscany and set hand to the decoration of his new home, painting at the same time a Nativity for the nuns of Santa Margherita. These works were soon completed, and towwds tne"end of the autumn he set out once more for Rome; destined, as after events proved, to return many times and to rise to positions of increasing importance. We are not able to trace in detail the steps by which he rose. Once more there is a break in his correspondence, and between the closing months of 1543 and the year 1545 there is a gap over which the Autobiography throws no bridge. Giorgio began to devote more serious attention to architecture than he had hitherto done, urged thereto by the praises bestowed upon him by Michelangelo.: praises which "for the sake of modesty" he will not repeat1. In the meantime he continued to paint, and finished for Bindo Altoviti the Deposition which now hangs in the Pamfili Gallery. This picture "Jiad the good fortune not to displease {per sua grazia non /dispiacque) the greatest painter, architect, and sculptor that has ever been in our time, and perhaps in past ages," and also attracted the notice of Cardinal...
