Lives of the Artists Author:Giorgio Vasari "A selection translated by George Bull." Vasari's Lives of the Artists stretches from Cimabue and Giotto down to the golden epoch of Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Vasari (1511-1574) was himself a painter, but his fame rests on these biographies in which he gathered together all the current knowledge of the Florentine artistic heritage a... more »nd triumphantly fused it with contemporary Italian theories of art. As a critic, Vasari is impressive, and time has added immense historical importance to the great popular success his work achieved from the start. The cover shows a detail from a painting of Florence by Vasari in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.« less