Vasari and the Etruscan manner

• Autores: Caroline Hillard
• Localización: Sixteenth century journal: the journal of Early Modern Studies, ISSN 0361-0160, Nº. 4, 2013, págs. 1021-1040
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The expansive literature on Giorgio Vasari (1511-74) has paid little notice to his views on the ancient Etruscans. Yet Vasari was the first author to establish a canon of Etruscan style and to apply his criteria to the analysis of an Etruscan object. His passages on the Etruscan are, therefore, a landmark in the history of art historical method. This paper considers Vasari's notion of the Etruscan style as developed in the "Vite" (1550 and 1568) and the "Ragionamenti" (1557-58) and its significance in Florentine culture under Duke Cosimo I de Médicis (r. 1537-74). An analysis of his texts, including an often-overlooked section by Giovambattista Adriani, reveals that Vasari's formulation of Etruscan style was part of a strategy to proclaim Tuscany the birthplace of the arts of "disegno". Vasari's achievement thus depend less on his experience with Etruscan objects than on his broader agenda to promete Tuscan artists.