Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects

"Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects" is the most famous work of Vasari. The author spent several decades creating the "Lives" — traveling around the country, collecting traditions and legends, and speaking with eyewitnesses of various events, repeatedly rewriting and supplementing already prepared materials. As a result, Vasari produced what is arguably the first encyclopedia in the world, which for many years served as the main and only source of information about the greatest Italian artists of the Renaissance. In it, you will find biographies of Donatello and Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, Titian and Giotto, Bramante and Sandro Botticelli. Written in a lively and accessible language, the "Lives" contain a wealth of valuable information about the lives, works, and era of the masters of the Renaissance.