Events

Event Description

Medieval Renaissance Program Event

Sally Cornelison: What More is There to Say About Giorgio Vasari?

Italian Renaissance painter, author, and architect Giorgio Vasari (1511-74) is best known for the artist biographies he published in the Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1550, 1568). Using the example of Vasari’s renovation of the church of Santa Maria della Pieve in Arezzo in the 1560s and 70s as an example, this talk explores the ways in which archival research, Vasari’s own writings, and close visual analysis can expand our understanding of Vasari--his work as a painter in particular--to arrive at a more holistic understanding of the man who has long been considered the first art historian.

Sally J. Cornelison is a specialist in the history of Italian late medieval and Renaissance religious art and the director of Syracuse University's Florence Graduate Program in Italian Renaissance Art, of which she is an alumna. Her  scholarly work concerns the history of art, devotion, ritual, iconography, and patronage as they relate to the cult of saints and relics in Renaissance Italy and the sacred paintings of artist, architect, and author Giorgio Vasari.