The Lives of the Artists, Vol. 2 » (Reprint)

Translated with an introduction by George Bull and notes on the artists by Peter Murray

In writing his, Lives, Vasari revealed a literary talent that matched, or even outshone, his abilities as an artist and architect.

Vasari's original vision of the arts, in which he sees the artist as divinely inspired, permeates this second volume as much as the first. Although at times inaccurate (prompting some dry remarks from Michelangelo), the Lives have a striking immediacy conveyed in the character sketches, anecdotes and detailed recordings of conversations.

Michelangelo praised the work for endowing artists with immortality. Vasari's shrewd judgements and his precise pinpointing of the emotions aroused by individual works of art bear out his prediction that Vasari would have a worldwide influence on the history of art. In this selection George Bull includes the lives of Perugino, Piero di Cosimo and Sansovino.