the earth." As to works of sculpture and architecture, not content with drawing these, he measured them all.

The greater part of these last thirty-seven years of his life was spent at Rome and Florence; but there are few important Italian cities in which he did not work. Venice, Verona, Mantua, Parma, Modena, Ravenna, Bologna, Pisa, Rimini, Perugia, Naples-to each of these he was called, and in each his fruitful fancy and rapid brush have left a lasting record of his talent and of the high repute in which it was held. No scheme was too large for Vasari; the larger it was, the more ready was he to undertake it. He wished "to accomplish the difficult and laborious in art;" and that he might be able to do this, he was "constantly seeking new inventions and phantasies."

By 1542 he had made himself easy in the world, married off two of his sisters, settled another in a convent, and built himself a new and commodious house at Arezzo. His early drawing-master, Michel-Angelo, whom Giorgio loved and admired throughout his life, had always been a friend to him; and when he was at Rome, in 1543, Michel, besides showing him much affection and giving him much good advice, made him known to the splendid Cardinal Farnese. Nor were these the only services that Angelo rendered him. After Duke Alessandro's death, whether from a doubt about his own powers or from lack of occasion, Vasari practiced architecture but little, though he did not give up the study of that art. Looking over the many designs he had made, Michel not only commended his ability, but encouraged him to take up architecture anew and in a better manner; this he did with such earnestness and such success that from this time onward it would not be easy to say whether Vasari was more architect or painter.

As year by year we run over the record of his works, we are astonished at their ever-growing number. Putting aside detail, he more than once tells his story in this fashion: This, and this, and this, I painted, "with many other pictures "; or, "at the same time I executed numerous designs, small pictures, and other works of minor importance, for many of my friends. These were, indeed, so numerous and so varied that it would be difficult for me to remember even a part of them."

He painted church and chapel walls, cathedral domes, the refectories of monasteries, palace halls and façades, the interiors of loggie, altar-pieces, portraits, subjects religious, historical, mythological, allegorical-all subjects in all places. Proud of his facility in design, and of his rapid execution, he was ever ready to attempt a feat. It was a time of great conceptions. Princes, churchmen, wealthy citizens, vied with one another in extravagant undertak

himself.

The

ings. Feverishly impatient until their conceptions were realized, they were as lavish of means as they were saving of time. artist had but two hands; they sought to supply him with a hundred. He was often forced to be a mere designer and overseer; a crowd of assistants, more or less capable, copying his cartoons under his hurried supervision. The artist's labor was immense; but it was hardly possible that it should add to his artistic credit. At the mercy of others, his designs often lost spirit, life, sense, beauty. The patron gained glory at the artist's expense. One of Vasari's experiences was as remarkable as it was unsatisfactory to Cardinal Farnese, wishing to decorate the Hall of the Chancery, in the Palace of San Giorgio, so as to illustrate the life of the reigning pontiff, Paul III., entrusted the work to Vasari. To carry out the Cardinal's scheme, he found it necessary to remodel the hall. He made the architectural drawings, superintended their execution, supplied the cartoons for twenty different frescoes, including portraits of the Pope, of Sadoleto, Pole, Bembo, Contarini, Paolo Giovio, Michel-Angelo, Charles V., and Francis I., designed a goodly number of ornaments and inscriptions, and completed the whole work within one hundred days. "Being then young," says Vasari, sadly, "I thought only of complying with the wishes of the Cardinal; but it would have been better that I had toiled a hundred months, so only that I had done all with my

own hand."

In 1550 Giammaria del Monte, who, as legate of Paul III., had opened the Council of Trent, was elected to the Papal chair under the name of Julius III. Vasari and Del Monte were close friends, and no sooner was the new Pope enthroned than he called upon Giorgio to aid him in carrying out his great schemes for adorning To Vasari he entrusted the design and superintendence of that tomb of the elder Cardinal di Monte, executed by Ammanati, in San Pietro in Montorio; with Vasari and Michel-Angelo he consulted about the continuation of the work on St. Peter's; and it was Vasari who made all the drawings for the fanciful and extravagant Vigna Julia, the Pope himself supplying the inventions.

Rome.

Making a hurried journey to Florence in this year, Vasari was very kindly received by Duke Cosmo I., the successor of Alessandro. Cosmo, who had long wished to have Vasari about him, gave him a pressing invitation to make his home in Florence.

His many engagements forbade an immediate acceptance; but as

as he was at liberty, in 1553, he returned to the "City of

soon as

Flowers." and placed himself at the Duke's service. Active service it was: Cosmo was ever building new things, and rebuilding the old; making mean things rich, and ornate things sumptuous.

Through him Vasari's name has been linked with the great Florentine architects; with Arnolfo, Fra Sisto, Brunelleschi, Cronaca, Michelozzo, Alberti; and with the most admired structures of the beautiful city; with the Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi, the Pitti, the Palazzo Medici (now Riccardi), the Biblioteca Laurenziana; with Santa Maria Novella, Santa Croce, and the Duomo. At the same time. that Vasari was constructing and reconstructing buildings, he was busy in decorating them. In addition to painting the "Hall of the Elements," he filled twelve rooms in the Palace with stories from the lives of the Medici, and with others showing the actions of illustrious women, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Tuscan. The great Hall of the Palazzo Vecchio he adorned with twenty large paintings, in which was told the history of Florence from the beginning up to his own time. When the prince, Don Francesco, was to marry Joanna, the Emperor's daughter, Vasari must supply the decorations, triumphal arches, views of all the piazzas in the larger Tuscan cities, views of fifteen of the principal cities of the empire, with much other ephemeral work.

Vasari it is who built that great corridor which, crossing the Arno, atop of the Ponte Vecchio, connects the Palazzo Vecchio with the Pitti; and he, too, designed the Portico degli Uffizi, under which we of the New World linger to study the faces of Dante, of Giotto, of Lorenzo il Magnifico, and of our godfather, Amerigo Vespucci. Besides adding a choir and chapels to Santa Maria Novella, designing a choir, altar, tabernacle, and fourteen chapels for Santa Croce, he built a palace for the Duke at Capraja, a church at Colle Mingoli, and fountains at Castello.

Between times he had gone to Rome. Pius V. sent for him in 1572 that he might paint the "Victory of Lepanto" and the "Death of Coligny," in the Sala Regia of the Vatican. Then he must work in the Pope's private chapel, and design sixty-eight cartoons for other chapels. Now he is chosen to succeed his drawing-master, Michel-Angelo, in superintending St. Peter's; now he must repair St. John Lateran's; now conduct the waters of the Acqua Vergine from Salma to Rome. Gregory XIII. will not do without him; he must complete the Sala Regia, which, begun by Paul III., had occupied thirteen painters successively for a term of twenty-eight years. Vasari has but one more thing in life to do. Seeking no higher glory, no more wealth, he declines an invitation to the Spanish court from Philip II.; he would round his labored, honored life by painting Brunelleschi's glorious dome, which crowns brave Florence, above the beauteous walls of Santa Maria del Fiore. He had just finished the Prophets in the Lantern, when death stopped his active mind and hand forever.

This is the man who wrote the "Lives of the Painters," in which is told the story of Italian art from Cimabue down to his own day; no mere sketch of painters' lives, but a detailed narration of their work, and not of painters' work only, but of the work of sculptor, architect, goldsmith, glass painter, modeller in clay, caster of bronze, niellist, and engraver. From his boyhood, for his own pleasure and instruction, and because of a certain affection for the memory of artists, Giorgio Vasari had made note of every detail concerning them which came within his way. By the year 1545 he had accumulated much useful material, the benefit of which we might never have so fully enjoyed were it not for a casual conversation. At that time he was painting the Hall of the Chancery for Cardinal Farnese. After his day's work he often went to sup at the Cardinal's, where he was certain to find a gathering of the most distinguished men, and of the brightest minds in Rome. One evening, the conversation turning on things of art, Paolo Giovio, whose museum gave him authority in such matters, bore the burden of the talk. Giovio, discoursing on the men who had made themselves eminent in art from Cimabue down, expressed the desire he himself felt to write a treatise about these great men, and elaborated his scheme at some length. Vasari, observing that Giovio's acquaintance with his subject was general rather than special, and thus vague and uncertain, while commending the idea, ventured to point out some of Giovio's errors and misconceptions. Directly the whole company, including Giovio, fell upon Vasari, insisting that he should undertake the work Giovio had suggested. This he was not anxious to do, on account of his many other engagements, and for the further reason that he doubted his powers as a writer. However, the Cardinal insisting, and Annibale Caro, Tolomei, and Molza, all men of acknowledged literary ability, adding their persuasions, he finally assumed the task.

With the old-time industry he now applied himself to gathering and arranging material for his book. By correspondence he sought information from distant places; he traced and read the manuscript notes of earlier artists; he consulted contemporary masters and students; he visited, described, and critically examined all the works in the cities through which he passed; he formed collections of the drawings of all good artists, and of models of statues. and buildings. The ground was new; the difficulties were many. and great; still Vasari did wonders. In 1550 he published a first edition, which was favorably received, bringing him much and welldeserved credit. No one saw its imperfections better than he: during the seventeen succeeding years he labored to amend them. Duke Cosmo encouraged and aided him, affording him every

facility for making new researches throughout Italy. Thus he was enabled to correct errors, to acquire more exact information, and to add many new "Lives." In 1568 he issued a second edition, illustrated with engraved portraits, the drawings for which he had procured, not without great "labor, cost, and pains."

The friend of Popes, of princes, of the most illustrious patrons, literati, and artists of his time, Vasari's position certainly afforded him exceptional advantages in his undertaking. Recalling his artist contemporaries, we find ourselves in the company of the most famous Masters of the Renaissance. Angelo, Del Sarto, Sodoma, Pontormo, Di Credi, Bandinelli, Del Piombo, Giulio Romano, Marc Antonio, Titian, Veronese, Sansovino, Palma Vecchio, Cellini, Ghirlandajo-all these he knew and associated with. Bramante, Botticelli, Francia, Perugino, Da Vinci, Raphael, were still living when Vasari was born; Giorgione had died but a year, Filippo Lippi but seven, and Mantegna but six years before Vasari's birth; so that he was within speaking distance of still another circle of illustrious artists, whose names the few we have mentioned will bring to the reader's mind. From Giotto to Vasari was but one hundred and seventy-six years. The immediate descendants of the fathers of Italian art had just gone; the traditions were fresh; the sources of information were plentiful and reliable; how plentiful and how reliable, almost any one of the "Lives," taken at random, will show.

In a simple, unaffected way Vasari puts before us not only the artist, but the man; his virtues, foibles, idiosyncrasies. Just in his judgment of each artist's work and powers, he is not less just in his judgment of personal character. With him justice does not mean severity. He is kindly-spoken; has a good word, praise, for all good things, and nothing ill to say beyond the truth. From individual virtue, or weakness, he is ever prompt to draw a moral; his aim being not merely to tell a story, or to make a catalogue, but to teach his younger fellow-artists, and those who were to come after him, the way to succeed, and the way to avoid failure. How high his purpose was, we may gather from his "Dedication" to Duke Cosmo in the edition of 1550, and from his address "To the Artists in Design" in 1568. To acquire praise as a writer has not been his object, but rather the glory of art and the honor of artists. As an artist he wished "to celebrate the industry and revive the memory of those who, having adorned and given life to the arts, do not merit that their names and works should be forgotten." He hoped that the example of so many able men might be of advantage to those who study the arts, and no less those who have taste for and pleasure in them; and that his words might serve as a