Lives of the Artists

Packed with facts, attributions, and entertaining anecdotes about his contemporaries, Vasari''s collection of biographical accounts also presents a highly influential theory of the development of Renaissance art.

Beginning with Cimabue and Giotto, who represent the infancy of art, Vasari considers the period of youthful vigour, shaped by Donatello, Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, and Masaccio, before dis...