Giorgio Vasari

Florentine, 1511 - 1574

Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution – Share Alike License

Italian painter, architect, writer and historian (1511-1574)

Explore Selected Works

Giorgio Vasari, Saint Mark, 1570-1571, oil on panel, Gift of Damon Mezzacappa in Loving Memory of Elizabeth Mezzacappa, 2012.79.1

Saint Mark

Giorgio Vasari · 1570-1571 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2012.79.1

A pale-skinned man sitting hunched over as he draws on a tablet and a bull lying at his feet fill this vertical painting. The man faces our right in profile, and he looks down at the book. He has a lined forehead, a bumped nose, and wrinkles around his nose. He has lanky, chin-length hair and a curly, unruly beard. He sits with one leg pulled up so he can partially brace the tablet on that knee. He holds the inkwell and clutches the top of the tablet with one hand and draws using a feather quill with the other. His other leg stretches down, and the ball of the bare foot is perched against the edge of the low platform on which the man sits. His garment has a white collar over a tunic that shimmers from plum purple to moss green. Extending from under the tunic’s short sleeves are long sky blue and pale laurel green sleeves. A golden yellow robe drapes over one shoulder and wraps around his lap. The gray bull, which is shown in about half the scale of the man, sits with one front leg tucked under his body as he looks over to our right. The floor is pale mauve purple, and the background is dark green, almost black. A glimpse of a work of art showing a woman holding a baby is visible near the top left corner of the painting.
Giorgio Vasari, Saint Luke, 1570-1571, oil on panel, Gift of Damon Mezzacappa in Loving Memory of Elizabeth Mezzacappa, 2012.79.2

Saint Luke

Giorgio Vasari · 1570-1571 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2012.79.2

Giorgio Vasari, Vita de' gran Michelagnolo Buonarroti, published 1568, 1 vol: ill: woodcut illustrations, Gift of Elmar W. Seibel, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1991.13.2

Vita de' gran Michelagnolo Buonarroti

Giorgio Vasari · published 1568 · 1 vol: ill: woodcut illustrations ·  Accession ID  1991.13.2

Giorgio Vasari, The Last Judgment, c. 1567, pen and brown ink with brown wash over traces of red and black chalk, squared for transfer with black chalk, on cream laid paper, Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2007.111.177

The Last Judgment

Giorgio Vasari · c. 1567 · pen and brown ink with brown wash over traces of red and black chalk, squared for transfer with black chalk, on cream laid paper ·  Accession ID  2007.111.177

Four drawings of faces and bodies are affixed onto a larger vertical album page, on which architectural decorations have been drawn on to act as frames. Three vertical drawings are spaced along the top half of the ivory-colored album page, and one larger horizontal drawing fills the bottom half. Drawn with brown ink and gray washes, the frames resemble moldings and scrolls around each drawing, with garlands flanking the bottom sketch. The three drawings in the top zone are done with metalpoint on gray or mauve paper and are highlighted with touches of white. The metalpoint technique creates faint silvery-gray lines. In the top left drawing, a nude man stands facing us. In the center, the face of a cleanshaven young man with curling hair beneath a cap looks down and to our left. Below the face, a forearm and hand clutching a rock appears next to another study of a hand. In the drawing to our right, a man wearing a toga-like robe leans on a walking stick, facing our left in profile. The drawing at the bottom is done with gray metalpoint lines and white strokes against golden yellow paper. A person sits and twists up in a spiral to our left. In the center of this drawing are three studies of muscular legs. Then, to our right, a man sits on a throne holding a spear or scepter and globe, facing our right in profile. An inscription in the frame below the bottom drawing reads, “Filippo Lippi Pitt: Fior:”
The "Chief Framer", Giorgio Vasari, Raffaellino del Garbo, Sandro Botticelli, Filippino Lippi, Page from the Collection of Niccolò Gaddi (So-Called "Vasari Page"), Sheets probably 1480-1504; mounting & framework c. 1575/1590, album page with ten drawings on recto and verso in various media with decoration in pen and brown ink, brown and gray wash, on light buff paper, Woodner Collection, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 1991.190.1

Page from the Collection of Niccolò Gaddi (So-Called "Vasari Page")

The "Chief Framer", Giorgio Vasari, Raffaellino del Garbo, Sandro Botticelli, Filippino Lippi · Sheets probably 1480-1504; mounting & framework c. 1575/1590 · album page with ten drawings on recto and verso in various media with decoration in pen and brown ink, brown and gray wash, on light buff paper ·  Accession ID  1991.190.1