Vasari's Lives of the Artists

An instant success upon its publication in the mid-sixteenth century, Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists remains one of the principal resources for study of the art and artists of the Italian Renaissance. The Lives' colorful and detailed portraits of the most representative figures of Italian painting and sculpture trace the flowering of the Renaissance across three centuries. This single-volume edition of selections from Vasari's immense work profiles eight of the book's most noteworthy artists and includes an introduction, notes, and glossary; and woodcut portraits of each artist by Vasari himself.