The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (Modern Library Classics)

Art History Important reading Enjoy art. Read this

To anyone disappointed in the way some of the pages look, there is a disclosure in the beginning that states this book is copied over centuries from the original artifact, but that’s part of the charm of reading a copy of original text. As far as the book itself it’s a part of history and a must read for aspiring artists or historians. It’s a window into the past and sparked a movement. It doesn’t get any more interesting than that.

This well known book---filled with "scholarly facts" which may be truth or legend is still very useful for any study of the famous artists of his time.

Beautiful

As I have a beautiful set of two volumes of Giorgio Vasari's "Lives," I was surprised and overjoyed to find this work in a Kindle edition! My hard-bound edition is about five inches thick and several pounds heavy, and the Kindle edition weighs nothing at all (the Kindle itself is only about 11 ozs.) Now, I can read every word of the "Lives" when I'm waiting on line somewhere, or waiting in a doctor's office, etc. It is a wonder that there are such great books available for the Kindle - all my favorites go with me wherever I go (which by now is about a hundred pounds of books) and they weigh nothing in my Kindle! Bravo, Amazon - this is another wonderful success!

This has to be one of the cutest books of all time, provided you love the Renaissance. I try to imagine Vasari speaking some of the lines sometimes and it makes me wonder when the man would have stopped to take a breath. He did take some liberties with some of his stories, as he did not know all of his subjects and got some of the stories second and third hand. But I think this little book is priceless. If you are a Renaissance nut like me, you will love it too.

I bought this book because it was required for an art history course. The problem was that it was hard to read. The reason is that the book was written hundreds of years ago. I found that I got the same information in a much better format from Wikepedia, online.

Personal collection!

Um livro interessante, embora um pouco cansativo. Traz tantas informações que chega a confundir, sendo um trabalho que mostra um só aspecto da sociedade. Um aspecto brilhante, mas um pouco mais dos problemas sociais, políticos e , claro, econômicos - são necessários para entender melhor essa fase maravilhosa de nossa história.

Nice

I am not a professional but bought the book because I love art and was interested to know what one of the earliest art critics had to say on the lives of renaissance artists. Although probably not always entirely accurate compared to the high standards, expertise and scholarship that goes into biographies and other art books and papers written today, this is a useful and interesting reference book. Like lots of my other books, it will sit on the shelf and will be there, alongside others, when I need to know something about an artist of the period about which Vasari writes so well.

The author should go far... Bought this copy to replace one I had from student days. As an art student it was / still is an invaluable source since Vasari celebrates some of the greatest artists from the transition from the former icon tradition, Cimabue and Giotto to the High Renaisance, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Titian - the so-called 'era of art' ; ref. Belting. Not only detailed analyses of artworks and artists but also some pithy observations, such as Uccello would have been a better painter if he had been less obsessed with perspective.

This book is not what you expect. Only 20% if it will be of help of you. But if you stick with it, that 20% is worth the time you spend on it and much more. Definitely go for it if you want to learn something truly great and up your reading game at the same time!