In the tradition of The Swerve and How to Live, this vivid biography reveals how a Renaissance scholar reshaped the visual world.
Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) was a man of many talents―a sculptor, painter, architect, writer, and scholar―but he is best known for Lives of the Artists, the classic account that singlehandedly invented the genre of artistic biography and established the canon of Italian Renaissance art. Before Vasari’s extraordinary book, art was considered a technical skill rather than an intellectual pursuit, and artists were mere decorators and craftsmen. It was through Vasari’s visionary writings that artists like Raphael, Leonardo, and Michelangelo came to be regarded as great masters of life as well as art, their creative genius celebrated as a divine gift. Their enduring reputations testify to Vasari’s profound yet unspoken influence on western culture.
An advisor to kings and pontiffs―and a confidant to Titian, Donatello, and more―Vasari enjoyed an exhilarating career amid the thrilling culture of Renaissance Italy. In The Collector of Lives, Ingrid Rowland and Noah Charney offer a lively and inviting introduction to this pivotal figure in art history, and immerse readers in the world of the Medici of Florence and the popes of Rome. A narrative of intrigue, scandal, and colorful artistic rivalry, this vivid biography shows the great works of western art taking shape under Vasari’s keen eye―and reveals how one Renaissance scholar completely redefined how we look at art. 8 pages of color illustrations; 3 maps

The Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art

Arts & Photography

Rowland, Ingrid

Charney, Noah

History & Criticism

W.W.Norton&Company

“Readers curious about the making of Renaissance art, its cast of characters and political intrigue, will find much to relish in these pages.” ―Wall Street Journal
Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) was a man of many talents―a sculptor, painter, architect, writer, and scholar―but he is best known for Lives of the Artists, which singlehandedly established the canon of Italian Renaissance art. Before Vasari’s extraordinary book, art was considered a technical skill, and artists were mere decorators and craftsmen. It was through Vasari’s visionary writings that Raphael, Leonardo, and Michelangelo came to be regarded as great masters of life as well as art, their creative genius celebrated as a divine gift.
Lauded by Sarah Bakewell as “insightful, gripping, and thoroughly enjoyable,” The Collector of Lives reveals how one Renaissance scholar completely redefined how we look at art. 8 pages of color illustrations; 3 maps

Vitruvius 'Ten Books of Architecture': A New English Translation with Commentary and Illustrations

Howe, Thomas

Architecture

Cambridge University Press

Liberties - A Journal of Culture and Politics features new essays and poetry from some of the world's best writers and artists to inspire and impact the intellectual and creative lifeblood of our current culture and today's politics. This spring issue of Liberties includes: Giles Kepel on the Murder of Samuel Paty; Ingrid Rowland's Long Live the Classics ; Vladimir Kara-Murza Surviving Putin's Poisons; Paul Starr on Reckoning with National Failure from Covid; Becca Rothfeld on Today's Sanctimony Literature; Enrique Krauze explores What is Latin America?; William Deresiewicz on Why Great Visual Art Forces Us to Think; Benjamin Moser on Rediscovering Frans Hals; David Nirenberg on What We Can Learn from Earlier Plagues; Agnes Callard's view of Romance without Love, Love without Romance; Mitchell Abidor looks back to "Social Media" in 1895 to Understand a Crowd's "Wisdom"; The Tallis Scholars' Peter Phillips on the Secrets of Josquin; David Thomson on Movies' Poetic Desire; Poetry from Henri Cole, Chaim Nachman Bialik, and Paul Muldoon; and, Leon Wieseltier (editor) asks "Where Are the Americans?" and Celeste Marcus (managing editor) writes for a Pluralistic Heart.

Liberties Journal of Culture and Politics: Volume I, Issue 3

Literature & Fiction

Starr, Paul

THOMSON, David

Moser, Benjamin

Cole, Henri

MULDOON, Paul

Deresiewicz, William

KRAUZE, ENRIQUE

Callard, Agnes

Nirenberg, David

Abidor, Mitchell

PHILLIPS, Peter

Kepel, Giles

Kara-Murza, Vladimir

Rothfeld, Becca

Bialik, Chaim Nacham

Essays & Correspondence

Liberties Journal

"A Meteor of Intelligent Substance" "Something was Missing in our Culture, and Here It Is" "Liberties is THE place to be. Change starts in the mind." Liberties, a journal of Culture and Politics, is essential reading for those engaged in the cultural and political issues and causes of our time. Liberties features serious, independent, stylish, and controversial essays by significant writers and leaders throughout the world; new poetry; and, introduces the next generation of writers and voices to inspire and impact the intellectual and creative lifeblood of today's culture and politics. In this issue of Liberties, highlights include: Laura Kipnis on how to think (and how not to think) about gender; Robert Kagan on the values that define American identity; Andrea Marcolongo on the role of the intellectual in contemporary times; Michael Ignatieff on whether freedom of thought is possible in our highly politicized culture; David Greenberg on journalism's change of objectivity over time; Jack Goldsmith on conservatives' use of social media; Bruce Jones on the response to China's threat; Clara Collier on powerful women in old Westerns; Sir Robert Francis Cooper on Burma; Jared Marcel Pollen on Vaclav Havel's complicated legacy; Mitch Abidor's defense of Francois Truffaut; Andrew Butterfield on the creative inspiration from Dante's exile; David Bell on fascism's identity in France; Steven Nadler on Spinoza's ostracism; new literary criticism from Helen Vendler, and, poetry from Charis Vlavianos, Nathaniel Mackey, and Durs Grünbein.

Liberties Journal of Culture and Politics: Volume II, Issue 3

Vendler, Helen

Bell, David A.

MacKey, Nathaniel

Kipnis, Laura

Abbot, Dorian

LÉVY, Bernard-Henri

Jones, Bruce D.

Grünbein, Durs

Collier, Clara

COOPER, ROBERT

Nadler, Steven M.

Vlavianos, Haris

Greenberg,David

Jensen, Morten Høi

Published in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death, this engrossing publication accompanies an exhibition the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Raphael and the Pope’s Librarian brings together for the first time one of the most fascinating works in the museum’s collection – the Gardner Museum’s portrait of papal librarian Tommaso Inghirami – and a painting from the Vatican Museums depicting an episode in this life. This book tells the story of the first Raphael in America and explores Inghirami’s fascinating career. Nearly five centuries after his death in 1520, Raphael’s fame remains undiminished. Crowned “prince of painters” by Giorgio Vasari, he inspired both artists of his own time and others for centuries afterward. According to the celebrated writer Henry James, Raphael’s work was “semi-sacred.” Gilded Age American collectors swooned over his iconic religious images and masterly brushwork, and James’s contemporaries feverishly tried and failed to acquire Raphael’s rare paintings in a market flooded with copies, and the occasional forgery. Isabella Stewart Gardner took up the challenge, determined to buy a magnificent Madonna by Raphael. Following her gripping hunt, Gardner was the first collector to bring a work by Raphael to America, where its unexpected subject led to a mixed reception and generated surprising rumors in the years to follow. Despite any hesitations over the painting’s beauty, Gardner named an entire gallery of her new Boston museum after the Renaissance master and installed many of her most celebrated works of art around his portrait of the rotund cleric Tommaso Inghirami. Described by Erasmus as “the Cicero of our era”, Inghirami was a celebrity in the high Renaissance esteemed for his profound erudition and theatrical abilities. His unparalleled knowledge and understanding of classics made him the ideal choice for Vatican Librarian under Pope Julius II. Yet he achieved a lasting fame on stage, playing a leading role in the revival of ancient theatre and acquiring the nickname “Fedra” after starring as the lovesick Queen Athens in Seneca’s Greek tragedy Hippolytus (Phaedra). Inghirami’s friend Raphael offered him another role, recasting the Renaissance humanist as the congenial philosopher Epicurius in his legendary School of Athens fresco before memorializing him in the more worldly painted portrait at the center of this exhibition. Raphael and the Pope’s Librarian is the latest in the Close Up series of books accompanying a Gardner exhibition series, each installment of which sheds new light on an outstanding work of art in the permanent collection.

Raphael and the Pope’s Librarian (Close Up)

Silver, Nathaniel

Paul Holberton Publishing

British artist Paul Noble's monumental eight-year project, the meticulous depiction of a fictional city called Nobson Newtown, takes viewers from the Shopping Mall to Ye Olde Ruin via wall-sized drawings. His aerial perspectives take the viewer over a fantastical cityscape that contains hidden quotations from Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat and T. S. Eliot's The Wasteland. Noble also includes an enormous egg-shaped sculpture (described as "a cross between a Faberge egg and a Grecian urn"), a black-and-white film and an embroidered modesty screen. All of his work revolves around themes of birth, language, religion and ruin. Whether drawing from medieval illuminations, ancient Chinese scrolls or contemporary artists like Robert Smithson, Noble embodies a fascinating blend of utopian fantasy, social policies and historical perspectives.

Paul Noble

Spira, Anthony

Blazwick, Iwona

Munder, Heike

Individual Artists

JRP|Ringier/Whitechapel Art Gallery/Migros Museum

Vasari. Il collezionista delle vite dei grandi artisti

Mondadori

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Rowland, Ingrid. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Rowland, Ingrid