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COPYRIGHT 1998 College Art Association
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. 176 pp.; 239 b/w ills. $75.50
Published in the middle years of the 16th century and thus almost 500 years old, Vasari's monumental Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects is without question the single greatest book ever written about the history of art. Far more significantly, it is one of the masterpieces of Western literature. Of great moment, therefore, is the recent reprinting of Gaston du C. de Vere's classic translation of Vasari's biographies in the Everyman's Library series, an affordable, handsomely proportioned two-volume boxed set, making the "lives" readily available to scholars and students of art history alike, as to all lovers of literature and amateurs of art. This translation does not include Vasari's technical introductions to the Lives, but it does present all the biographies, whereas before only selections were available in English. Generally accurate and highly accessible, de Vere's 1912 translation gives the reader a sense of Vasari's style in the original, for it is sensitive to the periodic structure of the author's writing, to the rhythms and cadences of Vasari's prose.
David Ekserdjian's introductory remarks are lively and informative. They whet the reader's appetite for Vasari's delightful and highly instructive text, as they introduce the reader to many of its author's themes. The introduction encourages the reader to engage Vasari's work, which "inspires us with a burning desire" to see or see again the art Vasari describes.
Vasari's Lives can now be read with the adroit analysis of Patricia Rubin's important new book, Giorgio Vasari, which focuses on Vasari as a historian. Copiously illustrated, Rubin's book is beautifully produced, reflecting the typically high standards of the Yale University Press. Her study is richly informative, comprehensive in its bibliography, shrewd in many of its judgments, and learned in the habits of Vasari's mind. As an explanation of Vasari's intentions, of how he gathered information, of his use of historical sources, of how he composed and revised his Lives, Rubin's book will be the standard work for some time to come. Synthesizing the vast modern scholarship on Vasari, Rubin ably analyzes the Lives within the framework of its author's own biography. Her book is a work to be read slowly and with great care, for on every page there is so much information, so many thoughtful observations, that one is invited to reflect, to ponder. Such rumination is well worth the effort, since Rubin gives us access to a shrewd historian and critic, to a formidably discerning eye, to a remarkable display of language in...
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