The Collector of Lives. Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art

Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) was a man of many talents – sculptor, painter, architect, writer, scholar, advisor to kings and pontiffs, confidant of Titian, Donatello, and other great figures. But Vasari is best known as the first biographer, working in a genre that he seems to have invented himself.
The genre of artistic biography became a canon for Italian Renaissance art. Before Vasari, technical skill was more valued in art and artists were perceived more as decorators and craftsmen. It is hard to believe, but it was thanks to Vasari's works that creators like Raphael, Leonardo, or Michelangelo appeared before posterity as artists. Their creative gifts are now called divine talents, and their reputation continues to have a profound impact on Western culture. It can be confidently asserted that the images of these figures were shaped through the centuries by Giorgio Vasari.
In this book, Ingrid Rowland and Noah Charney tell the captivating story of Vasari as a pivotal figure in art history and immerse readers in the culture created by Papal Rome and the Medici of Florence. Intrigues, machinations, rivalries of the greatest creators of Renaissance Europe... This vivid biography is read in one breath – like a work of art, but provides more knowledge than some textbooks on the history of art.