Today Giorgio Vasari turns 500. If not the founding father of art history (Winckelmann, Philostratus the Elder, and Vitruvius might all possess equally good claims to the position), he was the one who made it sexy and set the discipline's tone for generations. He was a character, who remained convinced that making music would lead to an artist's downfall and reveled in the salacious gossip of his day. Art history might have got more responsible since his day, but it was rarely as much fun. So, as they might have said in Tuscany,
felice compleanno!
A roundup of coverage of Giorgio's big day:
- Noah Charney uses Vasari's birthday to talk about efforts to uncover a lost da Vinci.
- The Guardian recounts some of the best moments from Vasari's Lives.
- The Uffizi has a special Vasari-centric exhibition up.
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