Giorgio Vasari

Hello, my name is Giorgio Vasari, and I want to tell you the story of my life, which was filled with art, architecture, and writing. I was born a very long time ago, on July 30th, 1511, in a lovely Italian town called Arezzo. Ever since I was a little boy, my greatest joy was drawing and painting. I would spend hours with my sketches, and I was very lucky to have a family who saw my passion and encouraged me to follow my dreams. My first teacher was a wonderful artist named Guglielmo da Marsiglia, who taught me the beautiful craft of making stained-glass paintings. One day, my cousin, a famous painter named Luca Signorelli, saw my drawings. He believed I had a special talent and helped me travel to the great city of Florence when I was a teenager so I could study to become a true artist.

As I grew up in Florence, I worked hard and became a professional artist and an architect, which is someone who designs buildings. To be successful, an artist in my time often needed a patron. A patron is a wealthy person who supports an artist by hiring them for important projects. My most important patron was the powerful ruler of Florence, Duke Cosimo I de' Medici. He trusted me with many incredible jobs. He asked me to paint enormous, colorful scenes called frescoes directly onto the walls of his home, the grand Palazzo Vecchio. These paintings told stories and filled the palace with beauty. My biggest project for him, however, was not a painting. Around the year 1560, the Duke decided he needed a new building for his city leaders. I designed a magnificent, U-shaped building right next to the river. You may have heard of it, because today it is known all over the world as the Uffizi Gallery.

While I was very busy with my art and architecture, I had another great passion: writing. As I worked alongside so many brilliant artists, I started to worry that their incredible life stories might be lost or forgotten over time. I had a wonderful idea: I would write a book to preserve their histories for everyone who came after me. I wanted to tell the stories of artists like my dear friend Michelangelo and the genius Leonardo da Vinci. I called my book 'The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects.' The first version of my book was published in 1550, and it was so popular that I wrote a much bigger, updated version that came out in 1568. I was so proud because my book became the very first history of art ever written, and it even helped give that amazing time period its name: the Renaissance.

I lived a very full and busy life, creating art and writing the stories of the artists who made my time so special. I lived to be 62 years old, and my life came to an end in 1574. Even though I am gone, my work lives on. People today can still visit Florence and see the beautiful paintings I created. They can walk through the grand halls of the Uffizi Gallery that I designed, which is now one of the most famous art museums in the entire world. But perhaps my most lasting legacy is my book. Because I took the time to write down those important stories, I am remembered as the 'first art historian,' and the amazing lives of the Renaissance artists will be celebrated forever.