ONLINE ART HISTORY COURSE “Giorgio Vasari & the Renaissance: Life, Lives, & Legacy”

Course Description:

Few people have impacted our understanding of the history of Italian Renaissance art as much as painter, author, and architect Giorgio Vasari. Born in Arezzo in 1511, Vasari built a successful career in which he forged personal and professional relationships with heads of state, popes and other ecclesiastics, as well as leading intellectuals. He also left a substantial literary legacy, namely the multi-volume Lives of the Most Illustrious Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, that remains a fundamental and often contested part of the study of early modern Italian art. This course takes a deep dive into exploring who Vasari was, the various works he produced, and how he shaped the legacy of the Italian Renaissance, for better and worse, to the present day.

Virtual Classroom: Full access to an online educational platform with videos of recordings, syllabus, and reading list.

Location: LIVE INTERACTIVE ON-LINE ART HISTORY LECTURES

Optional Readings: Information will be provided upon registration.

Complete syllabus will be provided upon registration.

• ALL LECTURES WILL BE RECORDED AND AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING AT YOUR CONVENIENCE IN OUR VIDEO LIBRARY FOR TWO WEEKS AFTER THE COURSE HAS ENDED.

LECTURE 1 – The Man Behind the Book

Wednesday, March 24

This lecture provides a foundation for the course by examining Vasari’s family, life, and career trajectory. It will place special emphasis on his artistic training and production, including the acquisition and decoration of his homes in Arezzo and Florence.

LECTURE 2 – Artistic Idols & Renaissance Rivals: Vasari & the Lives of the Artists

Wednesday, March 31

When most people think of Vasari, it is in relation to his groundbreaking book, the Lives of the Most Illustrious Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. First published in 1550 and later in an expanded and illustrated edition in 1568, the Lives traces the history of Italian artists from the late 13th century to Vasari’s own time. In this lecture, we will explore the place the Lives occupies in the history of artist biographies, which artists Vasari privileged and which ones he marginalized, as well as how Vasari used the Lives to document and champion his own career.  

LECTURE 3 – Popes & Princes: Vasari at the Papal & Medici Courts 

Wednesday, April 7

Throughout his life, Vasari traveled extensively, working in Italian cities that ranged from Naples in the South to Bologna and Venice in the North and beyond. Among his most important commissions, however, are those he executed for the papal court in Rome and the Medici court in Florence. As a court artist, Vasari painted portraits and he and his team of artists frescoed chapels and palaces and designed and executed ephemeral works for public celebrations, all tailored for the devotional, political, and propagandistic needs of his powerful and discerning courtly patrons.

Dr. Sally J. Cornelison is the director of the Florence Graduate Program in Italian Renaissance art for Syracuse University and a specialist in the history of Italian late medieval and Renaissance religious art. She teaches a variety of courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels on the history of sacred, as well as secular, art and architecture in early modern Italy. Many of her publications concern art, devotion, ritual, and patronage as they relate to the cult of saints and relics in Renaissance Florence. More recently, the focus of her research has been the sacred art of Giorgio Vasari, and she is currently completing a book on Giorgio Vasari’s work at the prestigious church of the Pieve in his hometown of Arezzo.