“Giorgio Vasari and the model of the Vite”

The course aims to introduce students to the analysis and knowledge of Giorgio Vasari's  Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori scultori e architettori, considering their genesis and the role of model they played for subsequent writers.

In addition to this foundational work of art history, some passages taken from the most significant previous writings will be addressed, from antiquity to the sixteenth century, and some of the main voices of seventeenth-century artistic historiography indebted to Vasari, also investigated with particular attention to the comparison between the different approaches and ways of presenting and reading works of art and artists.

During the lessons, as well as excerpts from Plinio, Luciano di Samosata, Filostrato Maggiore, Cennino Cennini, Leon Battista Alberti, Lorenzo Ghiberti e Leonardo, steps taken from:

- Giorgio Vasari, Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori scultori e architettori nelle redazioni del 1550 e del 1568, a cura di R. Bettarini, P. Barocchi, Firenze, Sansoni, 1966-1987, 6 voll.;

- Giovanni Baglione, Le vite de’ pittori, scultori e architetti dal pontificato di Gregorio XIII fino a tutto quello d’Urbano VIII, Roma 1642;

- Giovan Battista Passeri, Il libro delle vite de’ pittori, scultori et architetti, entro il 1673;

- Giovan Pietro Bellori, Le Vite de’ pittori, scultori e architetti moderni (1672), a cura di E. Borea, introduzione di G. Previtali, Torino, Einaudi, 1976;

- Filippo Baldinucci, Notizie dei professori del disegno, 1681-1728; ed. a cura di F. Ranalli, Firenze 1846

- Filippo Baldinucci, Vita del Cavaliere Gio. Lorenzo Bernino, Firenze 1682

- Carlo Cesare Malvasia, Felsina pittrice. Vite de pittori bolognesi, Bologna 1678, 2 voll., ristampa con note e correzioni di Giampietro Zanotti, Bologna 1841;

- Lione Pascoli, Vite de’ pittori, scultori, ed architetti moderni, 1730, ed. a cura di A. Marabottini, Perugia 1992.

1. Knowledge and understanding: students must achieve specialized knowledge and understanding of Vasari's work, its constitutive process and the various aspects that characterize it. They will also have to be able to evaluate the historiographical reality proposed during the lessons, considering both the one preceding the Arezzo's work and the subsequent seventeenth-century one, taking into account the personalities of the protagonists, the chronological and cultural contexts in which the different works were conceived, their prerogatives and specificity, establishing comparisons, defining analogies and differences and finally reaching a mature ability to read the texts presented in relation to their context. 
This knowledge is acquired through attending lessons, carrying out classroom exercises led by the teacher and through the study of exam texts, as well as through participation in seminars and, if possible, visits to exhibitions and museums.

2. Apply knowledge and understanding: students must be able to apply the knowledge acquired regarding Vasari's work, his antecedents and successors, to the study of the different disciplines that concern the history of art more broadly understood, verifying the role that art criticism has assumed in relation to artists and clients, to the creation of taste and works, to the contexts and societies that produced them, arriving at reading analogies and differences between different artistic expressions considered in their temporal succession and in their historical and critical fortune.
This knowledge is acquired through attending lessons, carrying out classroom exercises led by the teacher and through the study of exam texts, as well as through participation in seminars and, if possible, visits to exhibitions and museums. 

3. Judgment skills: students must achieve critical judgment skills of the texts considered, knowing how to identify elements of continuity and differences, in relation to the historical and geographical context in which they were produced, the experience of the protagonists, their taste, their relationships with leading figures in politics, art and the market in different eras.
These skills are acquired through classroom discussion with the teacher and colleagues during lessons, exercises and group work, and in preparing for the final exam.

4. Communication skills: students must possess written and oral communication skills in the Italian language, ability to express themselves and competence in the use of the specialized language of the discipline.
These skills are acquired by interacting in the classroom through questions, responses to the teacher's requests, exchanges with fellow students, making public presentations of exercises and group work, making a written report on the research work carried out within the scope of the course, seminars, final exam.

5. Learning ability: students will have to show understanding of the concepts and provide examples based on the models learned; they will have to recognize the texts considered thanks to the linguistic analysis, concepts and events contained, demonstrating that they are able to identify chronologies and geographical areas, to activate historical-critical comparisons and evaluations, thus preparing themselves for further studies. Students will have to acquire a mature historical-philological profile.
These skills are acquired through classroom discussion, comparison with classmates during lessons and exercises, the argumentation of the answers to the teacher's questions during lessons, the presentation of group work and during the exam.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

Course books

In addition to the passages selected and presented by the teacher during the lessons, taken from the following texts:

Giorgio Vasari, Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori scultori e architettori nelle redazioni del 1550 e del 1568, a cura di R. Bettarini, P. Barocchi, Firenze, Sansoni, 1966-1987, 6 voll.; Giovanni Baglione, Le vite de’ pittori, scultori ed architetti, dal Pontificato di Gregorio XIII del 1572 fino a’ tempi di Papa Urbano VIII nel 1642, Roma 1642, ed. a cura di B. Agosti e P. Tosini, 2 voll., Roma, Officina Libraria, 2023; Giovan Battista Passeri, Vite de’ pittori, Scultori ed Architetti che hanno lavorato in Roma, morti dal 1641 fino al 1673, a cura di G. Lodovico Bianconi con note di G. Gaetano Bottari, Roma 1772; Giovan Pietro Bellori, Le Vite de’ pittori, scultori e architetti moderni (1672), a cura di E. Borea, introduzione di G. Previtali, Torino, Einaudi, 1976; Filippo Baldinucci, Notizie dei professori del disegno, 1681-1728; ed. a cura di F. Ranalli, Firenze 1846; Filippo Baldinucci, Vita del Cavaliere Gio. Lorenzo Bernino, Firenze 1682; Carlo Cesare Malvasia, Felsina pittrice. Vite de pittori bolognesi, Bologna 1678, 2 voll., II ed. a cura di Giampietro Zanotti, 2 voll., Bologna 1841; Raffaello Soprani, Le Vite de’ Pittori, Scultori e Architetti Genovesi e de’ Forestieri che in Genova operarono, Genova 1674, II ed. a cura di Carlo Giuseppe Ratti, 2 voll., Genova 1768-1769;

J. Schlosser Magnino, La letteratura artistica. Manuale delle fonti della storia dell’arte moderna [Wien 1924], Firenze, La Nuova Italia, 1964, available at this address: https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/schlosser1956/0001/info,thumbs#col_image

B. Agosti, Giorgio Vasari. Luoghi e tempi delle Vite, Milano, Officina Libraria, 2013.

Assessment

Oral exam aimed at verifying the understanding of the topics covered during the lessons and of the textbooks indicated in the bibliography, as well as the ability to create relationships between the various subjects examined. The capacity of independent reasoning and a clear presentation of the contents will also be evaluated.

"Excellence" evaluations will be awarded in the face of: good critical and reasoning skills; ability to establish connections between the main topics addressed during the course; use of a language appropriate to the specificity of the discipline.

"Correct" evaluations will be attributed in the face of: mnemonic knowledge of the contents; some capacity for criticism and connection between the topics addressed during the course; use of an appropriate language.

"Satisfactory" evaluations will be awarded in the face of: a minimum knowledge about the issues addressed during the course, even in the presence of training gaps; misuse of language.

"Negative" evaluations will be attributed for: difficulties in orienting among the issues addressed during the course and in the texts; training gaps; misuse of language.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Course books

P. Barocchi, Storiografia e collezionismo dal Vasari al Lanzi, in Storia dell’arte italiana, a cura di G. Previtali, parte prima, vol. II, Torino, Einaudi, 1979, pp. 6-27;

B. Agosti, Giorgio Vasari. Luoghi e tempi delle Vite, Milano, Officina Libraria, 2013

Assessment

Oral exam aimed at verifying the understanding of the topics covered during the lessons and of the textbooks indicated in the bibliography, as well as the ability to create relationships between the various subjects examined. The capacity of independent reasoning and a clear presentation of the contents will also be evaluated.

"Excellence" evaluations will be awarded in the face of: good critical and reasoning skills; ability to establish connections between the main topics addressed during the course; use of a language appropriate to the specificity of the discipline.

"Correct" evaluations will be attributed in the face of: mnemonic knowledge of the contents; some capacity for criticism and connection between the topics addressed during the course; use of an appropriate language.

"Satisfactory" evaluations will be awarded in the face of: a minimum knowledge about the issues addressed during the course, even in the presence of training gaps; misuse of language.

"Negative" evaluations will be attributed for: difficulties in orienting among the issues addressed during the course and in the texts; training gaps; misuse of language.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.