Giorgio Vasari
Vasari, Giorgio (1511–1574), an Italian painter, author, and architect. His Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Architects, Painters and Sculptors from Cimabue to the Present Time (1550, revised and enlarged 1568) laid a foundation for later writers on the history of Italian Renaissance art. Vasari was a prolific painter in the Mannerist style. Among his most famous works are frescoes in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, and in the Scala Regia in the Vatican. His most important architectural works are the Uffizi Palace, Florence; the corridor connecting the Uffizi and Pitti palaces; and the Palazzo dei Cavalieri, Pisa. Vasari was born in Arezzo. At 13 he went to Florence, where he studied with Andrea del Sarto.