The Drawings of Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574)

This is the first catalogue raisonné of the drawings of Giorgio Vasari, Florentine Renaissance painter, architect, and author of the Lives of the Artists. With over 500 sheets surviving in numerous public and private collections, Vasari's drawings oeuvre is among the largest of any mid-16th century Florentine artist. Almost all his drawings are studies for frescoes, altarpieces, easel paintings, and other projects in Tuscany, Rome, Naples, and elsewhere.
Every drawing is fully illustrated and discussed in detailed catalogue entries, including many comparative illustrations. About 100 drawings, as well as numerous paintings and frescoes are illustrated in colour. In addition to the catalogue of Vasari's drawings, arranged chronologically, the book contains introductory essays on Vasari's theory and practice of drawing, on his working relationship with his iconographic advisors, and on his extensive workshop. Further brief introductions precede some of the artist's largest projects, such as the decoration of the Sala Grande in the Palazzo Vecchio, his works in the Vatican, or his unfinished frescoes in the cupola of Florence Cathedral.