Analysis Of Giorgio Vasari's The Lives Of The Artist

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Giorgio Vasari wrote the book, The Lives of the Artists is an expressive, yet biased manner. Throughout his biographies of the artists, Vasari is critical of each artist’s work; especially when it does not reflect what he looks for in a work. Even though, Vasari is a prejudiced writer, one learns several things about each artists’ style, thought process, and background which influence later artists to produce masterpieces. Within the biographies of Cimabue and Duccio, Vasari makes it obvious that Florence painters, deserve more praise than Sienese painters. Cimabue was a Florence painter, who received much more praise from Vasari than the Sienese painter, Duccio. From earlier readings, we know that Vasari enjoys when artists portray their ideas in their own way rather than how it is already being done. During Cimabue’s time, the Greeks as Vasari describes were painting things in a “rough and awkward” style that fell short of greatness. Vasari recognizes that Cimabue has the Greek style in him, but he greatly improves upon it, thus getting much praise from Vasari. Both artists, painted a Madonna yet Vasari only praises Cimabue for his portrayal of it when Duccio’s is more appealing to one’s eye. Vasari explains that Cimabue’s version is great …show more content…
However, throughout both biographies on Cimabue and Duccio, Vasari is already referencing other great artists. It seems out of place, especially in Cimabue’s biography for Vasari to begin discussing his appreciation for Giotto. Throughout this section, Vasari praises Cimabue for inventing a new modern form of art, until he says, “Giotto was and is, the greatest among the painters of the same city of Florence…” (Vasari 13). This is strange because the reader believes Cimabue had revolutionized art, but Vasari diminishes his previous pages on Cimabue when he puts the spotlight on

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