Art Without an Author : Vasari's Lives and Michelangelo's Death / Marco Ruffini.
Ruffini, Marco, author.
2022
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Title Art Without an Author : Vasari's Lives and Michelangelo's Death / Marco Ruffini.
Author Ruffini, Marco, author.
ISBN 9780823290949
DOI https://doi.org/10.1515/9780823290949
Published New York, NY : Fordham University Press, [2022]
Copyright ©2011
Language English
Language Note In English.
Description 1 online resource (276 p.) : 46 Illustrations, black and white
Other Standard Identifiers 10.1515/9780823290949 doi
Summary Why is the history of art so often construed as a history of artists, when its alleged focus is art? This book responds to this question by examining Giorgio Vasari's Lives and the artist it features most centrally, Michelangelo. Printed in Florence in 1550 and republished in a substantially enlarged form in 1568, the Lives is a compendium of biographies of the most noteworthy artists, from the late Middle Ages to Vasari's time. Perhaps no other text has exerted such a formidable influence on the discipline of art history, shaping its historical and conceptual categories-principally as an effect of its biographical format and the biological model it follows, charting artistic development from birth through decline. More than any other artist in the Lives, Michelangelo exemplifies art as an expression of the individual. Yet at the same time, as this book aims to show, the Lives fashions Michelangelo as the founder of a new academic era in which art develops collectively as a discipline. Paradoxically, Vasari's celebration of Michelangelo mobilizes a conception of art as teachable and transmissible that is antithetical to Michelangelo's aesthetic ideals and unique style. Each of the five chapters of this book examines the notion of "art without an author," whereby art is teachable and not the inimitable product of a genius, or a corporate rather than an individualistic venture. By tracing Vasari's transformation of Michelangelo from an artist into a figure who legitimates a new age in art, the book bridges a longstanding dichotomy in our understanding not only of Vasari but also of Renaissance culture and art. The claims Art Without an Author makes are integrally supported by art historical research and textual/philological analysis. By way of close study, this book reaches entirely new conclusions about Michelangelo, the production and significance of Vasari's Lives, and the role "authorial" values play in Italian Renaissance culture.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics text file PDF
Source of Description Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 03. Jan 2023)
In Fordham University Press Complete eBook-Package Pre-2014
Fordham University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
Available in Other Form print 9780823234561
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Frontmatter
Contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter one. Michelangelo's Funeral
Chapter two. After Michelangelo
Chapter three. The Making of the Lives
Chapter four. Describing Art
Chapter five. Art as Language
Notes
Bibliography
Index

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