Giorgio Vasari

He trained pupils in such large numbers, and in such an adaptable and flexible spirit, that they were suited in every respect to spreading his version of mannerism throughout Italy and beyond. . .

Vasari's book Lives of the Great Painters would be even more influential and would present the artists to future generations. Among the documents from this book are his accounts of Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael.

Da Vinci is described by Vasari as a man whose versatility was a handicap because it prevented him from concentrating on any one pursuit to the degree necessary to perfect it. Today we speak of the Renaissance man, and by this we mean someone like Leonardo da Vinci who can do many things well. We see this as a strength rather than a handicap, but Vasari did not, stating of Leonardo:

He would without doubt have made great progress in the learning and knowledge of the sciences had he not been so versatile and changeful. The instability of his character led him to undertake many things, which, having commenced, he afterwards abandoned.

Vasari was one of several biographers of artists during the Renaissance, but he is the best known of these biographers today, so well

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was that a small group of artists of genius brought about the marked rise in the social status of all painters and sculptors. Leonardo for his part put great stress on the "noble" qualities of art. This was also the time of enthusiastic patronage by the papacy, and the pope saw men like Michelangelo and Raphael as artists who could contribute to the glory of his office. The cult of genius developed during this time, and because of Michelangelo in particular, artists would be allowed a greater and greater say in the design, content, and execution of their work. While Michelangelo perfected this trend, it was Leonardo who started it. For Vasari, though, Leonardo's greatest potential lay in science, and the esteem Vasari places in this endeavor shows how the mode of thought in the Renaissance had changed from the Medieval period, a period when science was treated more like magic and as something to be tolerated from time to time rather than pursued as a quest. Leonardo changed that view by demonstrating how art and science could meet in the designs he produced for a number of inventions, most of them never actually produced but only dreamed up and recorded in his drawings. This document shows the nature of the though of the
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Approximate Word count = 1700
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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