Svetalana Alpers-Ekphrasis and Aesthetic Attitudes in Vasari's Lives

Ekphrasis and Aesthetic Attitudes in Vasari's Lives
Author(s): Svetlana Leontief Alpers

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 23, No. 3/4 (Jul. - Dec., 1960),
pp. 190-215
Published by: The Warburg Institute
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EKPHRASIS AND AESTHETIC ATTITUDES IN
VASARI'S LIVES
By Svetlana Leontief Alpers

part of Vasari's Lives is made up of descriptions of paintings,
Thebutmajor
these have been largely ignored in the critical literature. Instead,
writers have concentrated on the aesthetic theories and attitudes stated in the
introductions to the three parts of the Lives and on the use of certain terms
such as disegno,manieraand grazia in the work as a whole. The assumption
seems to be that Vasari is a forerunner of classical theory, as Kallab suggests,'
or, as Schlosser says, a mannerist theorist.2 Schlosser, however, prefaces his
presentation of Vasari as a man of ideas by admitting that Vasari works not
from general principles as a theorist does, but rather from the observation of
particulars. Kallab, who was the originator of this position, and incidentally
of the whole study of Vasari as a viewer and thinker as well as a collector of
information, felt that it was precisely in the variety and conflict of observations
and judgments that the special value of Vasari's outlook lay. Unfortunately
Kallab died before he himself could deal with this variety. It was Schlosser
who reduced his more complex ideas to the simple and common notion of
Vasari as an unsystematic thinker who can yet be systematically expounded
if one sticks to the prefaces and the terminology.3
I am not suggesting that Vasari's descriptions of paintings hold the key to
the Lives, nor that we can better our understanding of him simply by adding
a study of the descriptions to the view just outlined. Rather, a certain concept
of Vasari has determined the selective way in which the Liveshave been read.
Conversely, a consideration of the descriptions brings up new questions about
Vasari's attitude to painting and suggests a context in which to speak of his
achievement.4 If one views Vasari, as Schlosser does, as a theorist, his main
ideas seem to concern the growth of art from Giotto to the perfection of
Michelangelo. Perfection is judged according to the famous perfetta regola
dell'arte,which covers regola,ordine,misura,disegnoand maniera.5How can we
I wish to thank ProfessorE. H. Gombrich, While Erwin Panofsky'sclear argument about
in whose seminar at Harvard this paper was Vasari's notion of history and of perfection
begun and whose valuable suggestions and acknowledges a certain breadth of judgment
constant interest enabled it to progress. and observation, it sets up a scheme which
1Wolfgang Kallab, Vasaristudien, Vienna, ignores how Vasari analyses the particular
1908, p. 415. history and perfection of art. See "The First
2
Julius Schlosser,Die Kunstliteratur,
Vienna, Page of Giorgio Vasari's 'Libro'," Stddel-Jahr-
1924, p. 292. For a complete bibliography buch, VI, 1930, 25-72; reprinted in English
of works on Vasari see the latest edition of translation in Meaningin the VisualArts, New
this work, La Letteratura Artistica,tr. F. Rossi, York, 1958, pp. 169-235-
2nd ed., Florence, 1956. See also the periodi- 4 This paper will be concerned almost
cal literature listed in U. Thieme and F. entirely with Vasari's judgments on painting,
Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden which is the major concern of Le Vite de' Piti
Kiinstler, XXXIV, Leipzig, 1945. EccellentiPittori, Scultorie Architetti,in spite of
3 A recent example of this attitude is the the title.
series of papers entitled "La Critica del 5 These are referred to in the introduction
Vasari" in Studi Vasariani:Atti del Congresso to the second part and enumerated at the
Internazionale per il IV Centennaiodella Prima opening of the third introduction.
Edizionedelle Vite del Vasari,Florence, 1952.
90o
EKPHRASISAND AESTHETIC ATTITUDES IN VASARI'S LIVES 191
then explain both the psychological and narrative interest of the descriptions
and the astonishing fact that wherever one opens the Lives, whether at the
beginning of art with Giotto or toward the end with Raphael, the descriptions
are alike?6
Until now these questions have been avoided by subordinating discussion
to a preconceived general approach to Vasari. Lionello Venturi, following
Schlosser, sees Vasari as a theorist and understands the descriptions as a
statement of Vasari's imitative bias for real figures, actions and emotions. He
explains away the psychological renderings of Giotto's work as Vasari's only
way of dealing with art that is low on his scale of progress and taste.7 This
approach fails to recognize the descriptions for what they are-verbal evoca-
tions of actual paintings, the rhetorical figure of ekphrasis. Even C. L.
Ragghianti, who has done the most perceptive work since Kallab on Vasari's
historical and aesthetic views and their relation to contemporary ideas, calls
the descriptions the most original part of the Lives without recognizing their
true nature.8 He treats the descriptions as the verbal equivalent of mannerist
artistic practices.9 Vasari, according to Ragghianti, uses words to decorate
the subject even as the painter uses capriccios to decorate his art. Ragghianti
thus translates the descriptions into rhetorical reflections of Vasari's assumed
mannerist principles. He sees Vasari as a humanist and rhetorician and does
not take into account, as one must, that Vasari was not just a writer but, as
he himself said, an artist writing for artists.1' Admitting their rhetorical
character, we can rather define the descriptions as a revival and continuation
of the traditional device of ekphrasis. This at once explains the narrative
technique and opens the path to investigate the way Vasari looked at and
evaluated art.
But this definition of the descriptions does not by itself explain why Vasari
describes paintings exclusively in terms of narrative qualities while this aspect
6 There has been no Venice and in his analysis of Raphael, he ha
general agreement
and discussion on the character of Vasari's amended his earlier view of Vasari as a
descriptions. Schlosser (p. 287) correctly theorist. See his History of Art Criticism,tr.
singles out the descriptions of the work of Charles Marriott, New York, 1936, pp. io6-
Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel as excep- I09 and "La Critica di Giorgio Vasari" in
tional in not dealing with emotional expres- Studi Vasariani,pp. 29-46.
sion, but he neglects to discuss this concern 8 "II Valore dell' Opera di Giorgio Vasari",
with expression any further. W. v. Obernitz RendicontidellaR. Accademia NazionaledeiLincei,
and Anthony Blunt, on the other hand, both IX, 1933, 736-826.
treat the description of the 'Last Judgement' 9 Ragghianti is not the only scholar who
as typical, and Blunt uses it specifically to interprets the ekphrasisas rhetorical in the
argue that Vasari dislikes emotion in art. narrow sense of possessing certain qualities of
W. v. Obernitz, VasarisAllgemeineKunst- language such as ornateness. The one article
anschauungenauf demGebietederMalerei,Stras- in the Studi Vasarianiwhich discusses the
bourg, 1898, in his inaugural dissertation descriptions, by Carmelina Naselli, is entitled
(Strasbourg, 1897), p. 2o; A. F. Blunt, "Aspetti della Lingua e della Cultura del
ArtisticTheoryin Italy, Oxford, 1956, p. 92. Vasari", pp. II6-28.
II Gusto dei Primitivi, Bologna [I926], 10 Le Vite de' Piic EccellentiPittori Scultoried
p. I2o. Venturi's view of Vasari has gradu- Architetti in Le Opere, ed. G. Milanesi,
ally changed since this time. Although seeing Florence, 1878-85, VII, 727-8. Hereafter all
Vasari as a theorist, Venturi has always references to the Lives will be to the volume
wished him to be a critic, and since he has and page of this edition.
found some such trace in Vasari's view of
192 SVETLANA LEONTIEF ALPERS
is not comprehended by the perfettaregola dell'arte. This is essentially the
problem of how two different parts of the Lives-the descriptions and the
introductions-are related, and thus leads us back to the question of the
context in which we should read the entire Lives.
The Lives are not of a single piece but a combination of four distinct
traditional ways of writing on art: (I) the lives of the artists themselves,
following the lives of famous men, such as Plutarch's; (2) the description of
the works, which is in the rhetorical tradition of ekphrasisrepresented first by
Homer and followed by Statius, Martial, Philostratus, Lucian and others;
(3) the introductions to each part which consider the development of style in
a manner similar to ancient rhetorics, and (4) the technical prefaces in the
tradition of Vitruvius. Vasari's achievement lies not merely in including all
these approaches in one work (although it is true that he is the first to do so),
but in actually relating them to each other. It is by yoking the "how to do it"
of the technical preface, the notion of the progress of art to ultimate perfection
of the introductions, and the descriptions of paintings as narratives-all
commonplaces of the time-that he develops the distinction between imita-
tion, as the means or skills of art which are perfected in time, and narration
as the constant end of art. This is not the product of an exclusively theoretical
or historical outlook, but rather the outlook of a practising artist and practical
observer. By recognizing this we can avoid treating Vasari as a theorist and
yet discuss his attitude to art and its historical development instead of treating
the Lives as a collection of disconnected analyses and judgments.
I
Each painting discussed in the Livescan be considered from two points of
view. It has implicitly a certain place in the growth of art as set down in the
introductions, and as actually described it is a narration of human actions
and emotions. If we read Vasari's presentation of a work by Giotto, one by
Masaccio, and finally one by Leonardo (the originators, according to the plan
of the Lives,of the three major styles) we notice that the paintings of the three
periods are equally praised and in each case described in the same terms.
First, Giotto's 'Navicella' mosaic (P1. 25a):
In essa, oltre al disegno, vi e la disposizione degli Apostoli, che in diverse
maniere travagliano per la tempesta del mare, mentre soffiano i venti in
una vela, la quale ha tanto rilievo che non farebbe altrettanto una vera ...
senza che, in un pescatore, il quale pesca in sur uno scoglio a lenza, si
conosce nell' attitudine una pacienza estrema propria di quell' arte, e nel
volto la speranza e la voglia di pigliare.11
Second, Masaccio's 'Tribute Money' (P1. 25b):
Vi si conosce l'ardire di San Piero nella dimanda, e l'attenzione degli
apostoli nelle varie attitudini intorno a Cristo, aspettando la resoluzione
con gesti si pronti, che veramente appariscono vivi; ed il San Piero
massimamente, il quale nell' affaticarsi a cavare i danari del ventre del
11 I, 386-7.
25
a-Giotto, 'Navicella', St. Peter's, Rome (p. 192)
b-- Masaccio, 'The Tribute Money', Church of the Carmine, Florence (p. 192)
c-Piero di Cosimo, 'Andromeda', Uffizi, Florence (p. 201)

26
a-Raphael, 'Entombment', Borghese Gallery,

Rome (p. 195)
b-Benvenuto Garofalo, 'Massacre of

the Innocents', Pinacoteca Municipale,
Ferrara (p. 203)
c-Ghirlandaio, 'Massacre of the Innocents', Sta. Maria Novella, Florence (p. 202)
pesce, ha la testa focosa per lo stare chinato; e molto pid quand' ei paga
il tributo, dove si vede l'affetto del contare e la sete di colui che riscuote,
che si guarda i danari in mano con grandissimo piacere.12
Finally, Leonardo's 'Last Supper':
Lionardo s'imagin6 e riuscigli di esprimere quel sospetto che era entrato
negli Apostoli, di voler sapere che tradiva il loro maestro. Per il che si
vede nel viso di tutti loro l'amore, la paura e lo sdegno, ovvero il dolore
di non potere intendere lo animo di Cristo: la qual cosa non arreca minor
maraviglia, che il conoscersi allo incontro l'ostinazione, l'odio e '1 tradi-
mento in Giuda; senza che ogni minima parte dell' opera mostra una
incredibile diligenzia; avvengache insino nella tovaglia e contraffatto
l'opera del tessuto d'una maniera, che la rensa stessa non mostra il vero
meglio.13
Vasari does not indicate the arrangement of the figures.'4 His interest is
specifically in the subject of the picture, which he attempts to make as real
for the reader as it is for the viewer.15 In each case his major concern is
psychological-the artist's convincing depiction of certain real emotions: the
patience of Giotto's fisherman, the ardour of Masaccio's Peter and the satis-
faction of the tax collector, the obstinacy ofJudas in the Leonardo and finally
the feelings of the toiling, attentive, or puzzled apostles. This is accompanied
by exclamations on the skilful imitation of certain physical and material
details: the sail, Peter's red face, and the real tablecloth of the 'Last Supper'.
The value placed on imitative skills is of course of central importance in
Vasari's aesthetic; in the introductions it is the measuring stick for the gradual
perfection of art. But in the ekphrasessuch comments (although sometimes
they are pointedly used to compare two masters) are not concerned with the
relative or individual technical merit of the painting. In terms of the ekphrasis,
Giotto is as skilled in imitation as Leonardo.16 Vasari's praise for the realistic
representation of many details is part of his constant interest in the richness
and variety of narrative. The details are often presented in surprisingjuxta-
positions: high praise of the emotions of the Apostles and Judas in the 'Last
12iII,
13
297-8. given but inadequate treatment by the an-
IV, 30.
14We should not dismiss this tique theorists. It was separated from 'inven-
by saying that tion' only at a late period, and then not very
Renaissance artists thought in terms of sub- clearly.... What we mean today by 'com-
ject, not in terms of composition. The paint- position' has no equivalent in antique and
ings are sufficient testimony against this view. medieval literary theory." EuropeanLiterature
Nor can we say that the composition was a and the Latin Middle Ages, tr. W. R. Trask,
natural product, a mystery which could not New York, 1953,
P. 71.
be verbalized. The problem is rather critical 15 His mute confusion before Giorgione's
than artistic. There were no available terms destroyed frescoes for the Fondaco de'
with which to describe the composition of a Tedeschi is due to the apparent absence of
work and what is more the relationship be- subject (IV, 96).
tween composition and the expressive force of 16Vasarievensuppliesan anecdoteaccord-
the subject. This situation is similar to what ing to which Michelangelo says of a Giotto
E. R. Curtius has pointed out about ancient 'Death of the Virgin' that it was not possible
rhetorical theory. "In comparison with the to paint the scene "pid simile al vero" (I,
other divisions of rhetoric, 'disposition' was
397). 2
Supper', followed immediately by a remark about the real appearance of the
tablecloth. Since an ekphrasisis concerned with communicating what the
painting itself expresses, it must assume the expressivenessof the figures in the
painting and hence assumes a certain technical proficiency which is revealed
in all imitative aspects of the painting.17 In any description, the praise of the
imitation and the narration of emotions work together to persuade us of the
reality of the scene.18
Vasari does not systematically read a whole work as a single story, and he
treats a scene with great selectivity. In spite of Christ's importance in the
story told by each of these works, he does not choose to discuss Him apart
from the general description of the apostles. As often in Vasari's ekphrasis,the
reactions or feelings of a group of people-the apostles (even if their emotions
are differentiated)-are coupled with the description of a single individual-
the fisherman, the tax-collector, or Judas.19 Although this might reflect the
true intention of the artist, it is clear that Vasari delights in creating a sub-
plot such as the fisherman's patience or the satisfaction of the tax-collector.
In both cases, while the elaboration is appropriate, it is not explicitly called for
by the work itself. A clear case is the Giotto, in which the sub-plot, neither
crucial to the narrative nor given a central place by the artist in the mosaic, is
purely Vasari's elaboration.
We should not explain away Vasari's custom of selecting and exaggerating
certain details by saying that he remembered certain parts of the painting
better than others. For given so many examples it is safe to say that, in so far
as it is a matter of memory, his memory was controlled by the way he looked
at the works originally. Moreover, theqlisting of the separate considerazioni, as
Vasari called them,20gives the desired effect of copiousness.21 Looking at art
17Conversely, technical proficiency can, psychological reality. Franciscus Junius, in
but does not always, involve emotional ex- his ThePaintingof theAncients(London, 1638),
pression. Vasari in the introduction to the includes a list of different cases of energia
second part says of Giotto that he "fece among the ancient painters. These are mostly
migliori attitudini alle sue figure, e mostr6 taken from Pliny and include, on the side of
qualche principio di dare una vivezza alle emotion, Antiphilus' painting of Hippolytus
teste, e pieg6 i panni che traevano pii' all being frightened by the sea monster, Near-
natura. ... Oltra a questo, egli diede prin- chus' picture of Hercules' sadness in shame
cipio agli affetti" (II, loi). At the other end at his frenzy, along with Parrhasius'depiction
of the development of painting, Michelangelo of the youthfulness of two boys and Apelles'
succeeded in his intention which was to paint dying man, which are examples not of feeling,
"la perfetta e proporzionatissima composi- exactly, but rather of certain aspects of the
zione del corpo umano ed in diversissime reality of human appearance (III, iv, 4,
attitudini ... insieme gli affetti delle passioni pp. 299-302).
e contentezze dell' animo" (VII, 21 o). 19 For the prototype of such descriptions of
18Vasari is not unique in creating this a crowd, see Pliny's praise of Parrhasius'
mixture of representational and psychological picture of the people of Athens, Nat. Hist.,
values. It is common among the heirs of XXXV. xxxvi. 69. I have used the Loeb
ancient ekphrasis.The dual assumption that Classical Library edition, tr. H. Rackham,
ekphrasismakes of expressivenessand the need Cambridge, Mass., 1952.
20 IV,
for real representation can be more generally 117-
21
stated in terms of the desire for immediacy Ragghianti identifies all such details of
which Quintilian called the virtue of energia with capricci,a word Vasari uses
the ekphrases
(Inst. Orat., VI. ii. 32). This desire for some- to characterize fantastic inventions. Rather
thing the viewer senses as real encompasses than being peculiar to sixteenth-century
the representation of both material and rhetoric, the picking out of details is part of
EKPHRASIS AND AESTHETIC ATTITUDES IN VASARI'S LIVES 195
and describing what he saw legitimately involved for Vasari what we today
might think of as "reading in". He was offering a guide and commentary
whose force was supposed to result precisely from selectivity and reading in.
The fact that Vasari described works from all three ages in the same way,
rather than characterizing them as the product of their own age, is the
practical working out of his statement in the introduction to the second part
about the first age: "Ancorache, per aver dato principio e via e modo al
meglio che seguit6 poi, se non fusse altro, non si pu6 se non dirne bene, e darle
un po' pii gloria, che, se si avesse a giudicare con la perfetta regola dell' arte,
non hanno meritato l'opere stesse."22
An ekphrasisthat further broadens understanding of Vasari's attitude to
art is his description of Raphael's youthful 'Entombment' in the Borghese
Gallery (P1. 26a) :
Immaginossi Raffaello nel componimento di questa opera il dolore che
hanno i pilUstretti ed amorevoli parenti nel riporre il corpo d'alcuna piti
cara persona, nella quale veramente consista il bene, l'onore e l'utile di
tutta una famiglia. Vi si vede la Nostra Donna venuta meno, e le teste di
tutte le figure molto graziose nel pianto, e quella particolarmente di San
Giovanni; il quale, incrocicchiate le mani, china la testa con una maniera
da far commuovere qual e piixduro animo a pieth. E di vero, chi considera
la diligenza, I'amore, I'arte e la grazia di quest' opera, ha gran ragione di
maravigliarsi; perche ella fa stupire chiunque la mira, per l'aria delle
figure, per la bellezza de' panni, ed insomma per una estrema bonth
ch' ell' ha in tutte le parti.23
Again we have the mixture of real details and the expressive force of the
figures that "fa stupire chiunque la mira". Because of his interest in expressive
passages, Vasari points out details of figures, such as John's bowed head and
clasped hands and the general weeping, that we tend to ignore or to see as
part of the larger overall pattern which he never attempts to describe. In
this case, rather than merely adding up details, Vasari has attempted to gather
together the total force of the picture by relating both the artist and the viewer
to the scene at hand. The artist is related as the one who imagines the real
situation and the viewer as one who responds to it. Vasari, as we might
expect, equates the artist's conception of the scene with the viewer's response.
The artist does not organize and arrange the painting so much as he directly
expresses the story of the death of the most prominent member of a loving
family. The startling analogy of the family situation to Christ's death serves
the ekphrasistradition-see the discussion of addressed to the artists: "A coloro, ai quali
Ghiberti on p. 2oo. There is no doubt that paresse che io avessi alcuni o vecchi o moderni
Vasari likes fantastic details up to a certain troppo lodato, e che, facendo comparazione
point, as in his praise of Signorelli's "bizzarra da esse vecchi a quelli di questa eta, se ne
e capricciosa invenzione: Angeli, Demoni, ridessero, non so che altro mi rispondere; se
rovine, terremuoti, fuochi, miracoli d'Anti- non che intendo avere sempre lodato, non
cristo" (III, 690), but such capricci come semplicemente, ma, come s'usa dire, secondo
under the general category of ekphrasisrather che, e avuto rispetto ai luoghi, tempi ed altre
than forming a category of their own. somiglianti circostanze" (VII, 726).
22 23
II, 95. See also the author's conclusion IV, 327-8.
to emphasize the human rather than the theological quality of the narrative.
It supplies a common ground on which both painter and viewer meet, and
the force of the narrative expression, as is common in the Lives,is specifically
a moral one: "far commuovere qual e pih duro animo a pieta." A similar
moral effect is produced by Correggio's 'Madonna of St. Jerome' in Parma,
"nella qual' e una Nostra Donna e Santa Maria Maddalena; ed appresso vi
e un putto che ride ... il quale par che rida tanto naturalmente, che muove
a riso che lo guarda, ne lo vede persona di natura malinconica, che non si
rallegri."24 Finally, of Titian's picture of the beautiful penitent Magdalene
Vasari says: "Muove questa pittura, chiunche la guarda, estrememente; e, che
6 pih, ancorche sia bellissima, non muove a lascivia, ma a comiserazione."25
In each case the picture engages, as it were, in a moral struggle against a
certain evil. It triumphs by purging melancholy and by overcoming potential
feelings of lust in the viewer. Vasari's instructions equate painting with poetry
as a fiction with a moral purpose.
It is surprising that although the individual ekphrasesplace such a high
value on the depiction of human emotion, this is seldom explicitly praised as
being of the highest value in art. The two most direct statements are when
Vasari says of Taddeo Gaddi that his maniera
fu in alcune cose meglio che quello di Giotto; e massimamente nell' espri-
mere il raccomandarsi, l'allegrezza, il dolore, e altri somiglianti affetti,
che, bene espressi, fanno sempre onore grandissimo al pittore.26
And when he says of Filippo Lippi's 'Martyrdom of St. Stephen':
Considerazioni certo bellissime, e da far conoscere altrui quanto vaglia la
invenzione ed il saper esprimere gli affetti nelle pitture.27
Both passages occur in the earlier part of the Lives,so that such achievement
is not, as the plan of the Lives suggests, reserved for the age of perfection in
the sixteenth century. The explanation of Vasari's reticence on this important
aspect of art (as well as for his freely connecting it with less than perfect
artists) is probably simple. This kind of ekphrasis,with its narrative emphasis,
was beneath rationalization, for it represented the normal way in which art
was then seen and described. Vasari's innovation was not to revise this con-
vention, but to use it in an aesthetic and historical context.
Ekphrasisoriginated in late antiquity as a rhetorical mode of praising and
describing people, places, buildings, and works of art.28 The earliest example
of such a presentation of a work of art is Homer's shield of Achilles. Like the
later rhetorical form, this poetic description presents the shield in a series of
rich, ornate narratives, rather than attempting an exact description of any
possible shield. Although Vasari was influenced by ancient writers such as
Philostratus and Lucian,29 the use of ekphrasisfor the description of art is not
confined to writers of classical antiquity and the Renaissance. It was practised
24 28
See Curtius, p. 69.
IV, 114.
29
25 VII, 454. Statius, Martial, and Auleios were
26
27
I, 576. among other writers who wrote ekphrases.
II, 624.
continuously from antiquity until the time of Vasari. But although Caro-
lingian and mediaeval ekphrasisoften displays a narrative interest, a distinction
must be made between its particular form and its relationship to the art it
describes and that of either the ancient writers or Vasari. The mediaeval
titulus (appearing as early as Prudentius' Dittochaeonin the fifth century) is a
metrical inscription to be placed and observed with the work of art itself.30
Whether it deals with the simple narrative, with the allegorical or typological
level, or addresses the viewer in moral sermons, it is intended as the necessary
verbal part and completion, rather than an attempted verbal equivalent, of
the work of art. And whether presented as a programme, as in Ekkehard IV's
poem for Archbishop Aribo on the decoration of Mainz cathedral, or written
as a separate commentary, as the letter from Paulinus of Nola to Sulpicius
Severus, or inscribed on the wall with the work, it is bound to the image as a
single statement: the presentation of an event and its verbal fulfilment. The
ancient authors and Vasari take a critical attitude toward art as an aesthetic
object: they at least pretend to evoke one particular painted version of a story
and to select certain details and features for praise. In mediaeval ekphrasis,
art, rather than being judged as a human artifact, had what might be called
a mystical function in which the tituli played an integral role. 31
In turning to ancient ekphrasis,Vasari did not of course object to the
critical lack in mediaeval ekphrasis,but rather to what appeared to the
Renaissance to be the basic fault in mediaeval art and its aims which made
it ill-suited for ekphrasis. In his famous praise of Giotto, who "avendo . . .
quella arte ritornata in luce, che molti secoli sotto gli error d'alcuni che pii
a dilettar gli occhi degl' ignoranti che a compiacere allo 'ntelletto de' savi
dipignendo era stata sepulta,"32 Boccaccio clearly states what would have
been Vasari's objection to mediaeval art. It was an art which charmed the
eyes of the simple folk by nurturing a decadent interest in pretty colours,
30 For a discussion of tituli
see, among other humility in Dante's Divine Comedy(Purgatory
things, Anton Springer, "Die deutsche Kunst x). However, the titulusmay be said to corre-
im zehnten Jahrhundert", West deutscheZeit- spond to the practical function of Philostratus'
schrift fiir Geschichteund Kunst, III, I884, and Lucian's descriptions-instruction in
214 ff.; E. Steinmann, Die Tituli unddie Kirch- viewing actual paintings.
lichen Wandmalereien im Abendlande vom 5.-Iz. 1 Joachim Gaehde, whom I wish to thank
Jahrhundert,Leipzig, 1892, and Schlosser's for the many helpful suggestions he made in a
summary, "Beitrige zur Kunstgeschichte aus discussionwe had about the nature of mediae-
den Schriftquellen", Sitzungsberichte derAkade- val tituli,pointed out that the single, outstand-
mie, Vienna, 1891, p. 15 ff. For collections of ing example of a critical attitude toward art
tituli see Schlosser's Schriftquellen zur Geschichte as art (even if it is reached by the back door,
derKarolingischen Kunst,N.F. 4, Vienna, 1892; so to speak) is stated in the Libri Carolini.The
Quellenbuchzur Kunstgeschichte des abendldndi- author of that work replies to the Eastern
schenMittelalters,N.F. 7, Vienna, 1896, and Church's espousal of image-worship by defin-
Schriftquellenzur Kunstgeschichte des ii und 12 ing art not as a mystical object, but merely as
Jahrhundertsfar Deutschland,Lothringenund a human artifact. For the most recent study
Italien, ed. Otto Lehmann-Brockhaus, Berlin, of the Libri Carolini see Ann Freeman,
1938. I do not mean to imply that the titulus "Theodulf of Orleans and the Libri Carolini",
represents the only, or even a direct, con- Speculum,XXXII, I957, 663-705. Section viii
tinuation of ancient ekphrasis.The rhetorical is concerned with the aesthetic viewpoint
tradition of ekphrasis itself continues in literary expressed.
descriptions of imaginary works of art-for 32 II Decameron, ed. C. S. Singleton, Bari,
the reliefs depicting examples of II, VI, ch. v).
example, 1955, i5 (Bk.
rather than addressing the intelligent with recognizable figures and, the impli-
cation is, intelligible narrative like Giotto's. Thus a susceptibility to ekphrasis
could be said to be a symptom of the virtues and superiority of Renaissance
and classical art over the art of the mediaeval period.33
Ancient ekphraseswere widely read in the Renaissance. They were both
used by the artists themselves as sources for inventions and extravagantly
praised in treatises on art.34 To Alberti, Lucian's description of the 'Calumny'
of Apelles was valuable by itself even without its painting, and Leonardo used
it to show that painting could have a moral tone analogous to the purpose of
a poet's fiction.35 Ekphrasiswas also endorsed as a technique of describing
paintings. A comparison of Renaissance examples with the ekphrasesof the
ancient writers reveals many similarities. Philostratus, like Vasari after him,
saw and, as it were, read art as a vivid narrative. Like Vasari in San Francesco
in Arezzo before the story of St. Helena,36 Philostratus treats the individual
paintings of a series as separate stories. Unlike Vasari he treats each painting
more thoroughly and his descriptions are consecutive narratives that can be
read as myths without the pictures."3 Although the Imaginesremains a par-
ticular kind of rhetorical display, its framework, as well as its introduction,
makes explicit an educational purpose similar to that in the Lives. Philostratus
is an older man guiding a boy through a gallery of pictures to teach him, as
the introduction says, to "interpret paintings and to appreciate what is
esteemed in them."38 Like Vasari's readers, the boy is expected to become
emotionally and morally involved in the painted scenes. In fact, to avoid the
climax of Poseidon's pursuit of Amymone, Philostratus urges the young boy
to move on. Furthermore, we find in this story (and indeed throughout the
Imagines)the same juxtaposition as in Vasari of representational, illusionistic
details, such as the reflection of the golden pitcher in the water, with real
dramatic and emotional action, such as Amymone's flight.39 The most signi-
ficant difference between Philostratus and Vasari is that Philostratus argues
that it is important to concentrate on narration rather than on imitation. He
both announces and acts on the idea which we saw revealed in Vasari's
descriptions-that ekphrasisassumes technical ability. Philostratus warns the
viewer against thinking that the mere technical facility of imitation is im-
portant; the true value of art, he says, lies in its "cleverness or the sense of
fitness".
40
Lucian's description of the 'Calumny' of Apelles narrates an allegorical
33Vasari's antagonism to Venetian art is York, 1956, p. 853. All references to Alberti
in one respect similar to this criticism of and Leonardo will be to these editions.
mediaeval art. Venetian art too, as repre- 36 II,
sented so clearly by Giorgione's Fondaco de' :1 See495-7.
K. Lehmann-Hartleben, "Imagines
Tedeschi, often avoids the narrative purpose of the elder Philostratus", The Art Bulletin,
for an interest in the sheer display of colour XXIII, 1941, I6-44.
(IV, 96). 38Imagines,tr. Arthur Fairbanks, London:
34See R. Foerster in Jahrbuchder Preuss. Loeb Classical Library, 193I,
p. 5.
Kunstslg., VII, 1887, XXV, I904, XLIII, 39 I, 8, pp. 33-35.
1922 for paintings done after ekphrases. 40 I, 9, P. 49. A less important but equally
S Della Pittura in Leone Battista Albertis noticeable difference between Philostratus

Schriften,ed. H. Janit-
KleinereKunsttheoretische and Vasari is that the ancient writer indulges
schek, Vienna, 1877, p. 145. Notebooksof in descriptions of completely non-pictorial
Leonardoda Vinci, tr. Ed. MacCurdy, New things, such as sounds, smells, and noises.
EKPHRASISAND AESTHETIC ATTITUDES IN VASARI'S LIVES i99
situation with as much vigour as Philostratus' myths.41 His specific interest
for us is that his introduction provides a further explanation for Philostratus'
attack on the critic's attraction to illusionistic prowess and clarifies the dis-
tinction between ancient ekphrasisand that of Vasari. Lucian says that as a
commentator he is interested not in techniques-the proper concern of the
practitioner-but in the psychological aspects of the painting. 42 After offering
this explanation, Lucian shows much less concern for the truth of the imitation
than Philostratus.
Vasari's type of ekphrasisis duplicated in all Renaissance attempts to
describe paintings. Alberti, for example, in the only description of a modern
work of art in Della Pittura, treats Giotto's 'Navicella' as a psychological
narrative, much as we have seen Vasari do:
Lodasi la nave dipinta ad Roma in quale el nostro toscano dipintore
Giotto pose undici discepoli, tutti commossi da paura, vedendo uno de'
suoi compagni passeggiare sopra l'acqua, che ivi expresse ciascuno con suo
viso et gesto porgere suo certo inditio d'animo turbato, tale che in ciascuno
erano suoi diversi movimenti et stati.43
The most interesting thing for us is not the ekphrasisitself, but the fact that
Alberti presents it in the context of his characterization of the istoria:
Movera l'istoria l'animo quando li huomini ivi dipinti molto porgeranno
suo proprio movimento d'animo. ... Questi movimenti d'animo si
conoscono dai movimenti del corpo.44"
This point is of course also made by Leonardo,45 who connects expression in
painting and rhetorical expression in his recommendation that a man repre-
sented speaking must be depicted according to the subject of his speech.46
Alberti's definition of istoriaclearly states the central concern of Renaissance
ekphrasis--thatemotion can only be expressed by real action. It is the seminal
formulation of the relationship between the technique of depicting reality and
the telling of a story in paint, and it supplies the rationale for the concern
with representational technique that we find in Renaissance ekphrasis.
So important were the difficulties of such representation (whether of real
gestures or real tablecloths) that Manetti's description of Brunelleschi's entry
for the Baptistery door competition reads like a list of well-executed move-
ments:
Ma quando e' vidono la sua, tutti stupivano e maravigliavansi delle diffi-
culth ch' egli aveva messo innanzi, come fu l'attitudine d'Abram, I'attitu-
dine di quel dito sotto el mento, la sua prontezza, e panni, e '1 modo e la
fine di tutto quel corpo del figliuolo, e '1 modo e panni di quello Angelo e
suoi reggimenti, e come gli piglia la mano; I'attitudine e '1 modo e la fine
di quello che si trae lo stecco del pie, e cosi de quello che bee chinato; e di
41 Slanderin The Worksof Lucian,tr. A. M. for the technical accomplishment.
Harmon, I, London: Loeb Classical Library, 43p. 123.
1927, 363-7- 44p. 121.
42 This is a departure from Homer who 868.
45 p.
mixed praise for the narration with a concern 4 p. 871.
quanta difficulta sono quelle figure, e quanto bene elle fanno l'uficio loro,
che non v'e membro che non abbia spirito.47
This is not really an ekphrasis-it simply supplies the materials. For according
to Alberti such movement is dramatic action which must be understood as
reflecting emotions. This narrative element is absent in Manetti.
The most significant example of ekphrasisbefore Vasari is Ghiberti's
description of the martyrdom of the monks by his favourite painter, Ambrogio
Lorenzetti.48 The ekphrasisreads like a tragic tale, although Ghiberti, even
more insistently than Vasari, locates the reader as a viewer before the fresco:
in presenting the narrative, he says "evi dipinto" for Vasari's "dove sono".
Ghiberti praises the artist for his depiction of weariness, real sweat dropping
off soft hair, and the climactic storm-creating the same mixture of real
physical, emotional, and even natural states that we find in Vasari.
As a final example, Leonardo gives in his notebooks a recipe for represent-
ing a storm which is very similar to Ghiberti's-complete with bent trees and
fallen people with their clothes blowing in the wind.49 In the description
-a kind of ekphrasisbefore the fact-the language itself, rather than evoking
a painting of the storm, directly evokes the storm itself and so emphasizes that
ekphrasisis rhetorical-in the sense of using persuasive language. There is,
however, a significant difference between Leonardo and both Ghiberti and
Vasari which suggests a change in emphasis from the fifteenth to the sixteenth
century. Leonardo, rather than emphasizing what emotion is expressed,
concentrates on the action which is expressive. He describes with great detail
the way things look in a storm, flood, deluge, or whatever scene he is treating.
For him the details of reality are expressive simply because they are properly
and fully represented, while Vasari reversesthe order of precedence and makes
representational reality the taking-off point for the analysis of emotions.
Vasari would say that Leonardo lived in a time which was still grappling with
the problems and difficulties of representation. But although Vasari believes
in the technical progress of art, he, unlike the ancient authors, did not
eliminate details of technique from his ekphrasisprecisely because he accepts
Alberti's clear equation of representation and narration.
The Renaissance, as I have tried to show in this brief survey, was remark-
ably consistent in its descriptions of paintings. Vasari's ekphrases,although
extraordinary by virtue of their number, are not unusual in kind. What is
unusual is the new meaning they derive from their use in the Lives. In the
introductions, Vasari presents the development of the imitative skills as the
road to perfection in art. This has the effect of isolating the technical means
from the ekphrasis,which concerns the expressive ends of art. In other words,
Vasari actually preserves the distinction which the classical authors had
insisted on between the technique and the aim or effect of art. But he goes
much further than his predecessors did in relating the two aspects that are
distinguished. He relates technique and expressiveness by treating them as
4• Antonio Manetti, Vita di Filippo di Ser mentarii), ed. J. Schlosser, Berlin, 1912, I, 40-
Brunellesco,ed. Elena Toesca, Florence, 1927, 41.
p. 48i6. 4 p. 870.
LorenzoGhibertisDenkwiirdigkeiten
(I Com-
the means and the ends of art.50 Simultaneously they are placed in an
historical scheme according to which the means of art are gradually perfected
while the ends remain constant. This is how we must understand the simi-
larity of the ekphrasesthroughout a work which also traces the progress of art
to its perfection.
The function of the descriptions in the Lives is simply to make a picture
live for the viewer, no matter where, when, or by whom it was made: ekphrasis
concerns the viewer's education, not the artist's. In this point Vasari concurs
not only with Philostratus, but with the majority of people writing descrip-
tions of art at his time. Unlike the technical analysis, ekphrasisis not used by
Vasari as a critical tool. He never states the obvious connection between
means and ends as he treats them-that as the representation improves, stories
can be told better. Although invenzione,as well as disegno,is said to improve
through the three periods, the descriptions of the paintings, as we have seen,
do not reveal this; the narrative aim and its accomplishment are identified
and constant. Giotto tells a story as well as Leonardo, although the means
have changed. Not only is there an absence of any indication of the develop-
ment of narrative, but Vasari does not differentiate between his characteriza-
tions of the same story as told in different paintings by different artists
(although he does sometimes cite unique details). Finally Vasari does not
consider the difference between verbal and painted narration. He assumes
that the same conventions, such as the chorus, belong to both in quite the
same way. As a description of art with reference to its narrative ends, ekphrasis
is given aesthetic and historical meaning in the Lives. But it would give an
incomplete picture to discuss the individual ekphrasisas a selective description
of art without pointing out the strict conventions that prevent it from being a
flexible means of criticizing and describing art.
Since Vasari assumes all good art to be a narration of human emotions,
he reads even a painting comparatively devoid of all facial or bodily expression
as if it displayed the appropriate emotions. Let us look at part of Vasari's
description of the 'Finding of the True Cross' by Piero della Francesca in
Arezzo:
Il morto ancora e benissimo fatto, che al toccar della Croce resuscita; e la
letizia similmente di sant' Elena, con la maraviglia dei circostanti che
s'inginocchiano ad adorare.51
Rather than describing Piero's particular presentation of the raising of the
dead man-Helena's expressionlessface and the stony, staring crowd-Vasari
is describing the emotions that belong to the scene. Similarly, we can compare
his description of Piero di Cosimo's 'Andromeda' to the painting (P1. 25c):
Atteso che non n possibile vedere la pii bizzarra orca marina nn la pidl
capricciosa di quella che si immagin6 di dipignere Piero, con la piii fiera
attitudine di Perseo che in aria la percuote con la spada. Quivi fra '1
timore e la speranza si vede legata Andromeda, di volto bellissima; e qua
innanzi molte genti con diversi abiti strani sonando e cantando, ove sono
50 For a fuller discussion of this point see 51II, 496.
section II.
certe teste che ridano e si rallegrano di vedere liberata Andromeda, che
sono divine.52
We can see the strange monster, but Andromeda's features are nearly invisible
and quite unimportant in the whole picture. Finally, the crowd's actions are
puzzling. Vasari's narration of their joy at the release of Andromeda treats
them as a chorus and reflects what Vasari wishes the viewer's reactions to be.53
Again it is the narrative, not the particular painting, that has evoked Vasari's
comments. There are, in fact, certain commonplaces of expression and action
that are associated for Vasari with each scene. Thus if we read his description
of another St. Helena by Daniello Ricciarelli, we find a description very
similar to the description of the Piero:
La detta Santa quella di Cristo riconosce nel risuscitare un morto, sopra
cui e posta: nell' ignudo del quale morto mise Daniello incredibile studio
per ritrovare i muscoli e rettamente tutte le parti dell' uomo; il che fece
ancora in coloro che gli mettono addosso la croce, e nei circostanti, che
stanno tutti stupidi a veder quel miracolo.54
The beautiful dead body and the amazement of the bystanders are found in
each ekphrasis.Of course it is very probable that the painters also thought in
terms of such commonplaces. But the fact remains that even if they did, a
painting by Piero and one by Ricciarelli of the same subject turned out to be
significantly different.
If we compare Vasari's descriptions of a single scene as painted by two
different artists, we discover that rather than trying to take account of the
particular works, Vasari recites the same commonplaces about each of them.
It is not merely that certain associations come to his mind before each scene.
The commonplaces reflect and enforce the notion of appropriateness or
decorum. Vasari describes Ghirlandaio's 'Massacre of the Innocents' (P1. 26c)
in part as follows; among the babies
si vede uno che ancora appiccato alla poppa muore per le ferite ricevute
nella gola, onde sugge, per non dir beve, dal petto non meno sangue che
latte: cosa veramente di sua natura, e per esser fatta nella maniera ch' ella
e, da tornar viva la pieth dove ella fusse ben morta. Evvi ancora un
soldato che ha tolto per forza un putto; e mentre, correndo con quello, se
lo stringe in sul petto per ammazzarlo, se gli vede appiccata a' capelli la
madre di quello con grandissima rabbia; e facendogli fare arco della
schiena, fa che si conosce in loro tre effetti bellissimi: uno e la morte del
putto, che si vede crepare; I'altro, l'impieta del soldato che, per sentirsi
tirare si stranamente, mostra l'affetto del vendicarsi in esso putto; il terzo
e che la madre, nel veder la morte del figliuolo, con furia e dolore e sdegno
cerca che quel traditore non parta senza pena.55
52
IV, I39. tween the viewer and the scene in the form
53The apostles we discussed in the works of a single figure reacting to the event. Della
by Giotto, Masaccio and Leonardo also play Pittura, p. 123-
this r61leof a chorus. This essentially follows 54 VII, 54.
Alberti's recommendation for a mediator be- 55 III, 264-5-
It is impossible to find the baby who is drinking blood instead of milk any-
where in the picture. But it is interesting, and no doubt immediately relevant
to Vasari's description, that Pliny cites just this incident in a painting of the
capture of a town by Aristides of Thebes, the first artist to paint the human
mind and feelings.56 Although the three effettiare described in detail-as if
peculiarly important to this picture-they instead turn out to be peculiarly
important to this story. A picture by Benevenuto Garofalo of this subject
(P1. 26b) is presented in terms of the same effetti:"Vi sono, oltre ci6, molto
bene expressi della varieth delle teste diversi effetti, come nelle madre e
balie la paura, ne' fanciulli la morte, negli uccisori la crudelt."''57 In a like
manner the story of the martyrdom of St. Stephen is always accompanied by
a commentary on the vigour of the attackers' assault and the patience of the
saint-as in the descriptions of the paintings on this subject by Filippo Lippi
and Giulio Romano.58 And all battle pictures are characterized by the
sufferings of the dead and the wounded and the gleam of the armour. Vasari's
descriptions of the paintings are based not on the observation of the particular
narration, but on the definition of the story.
One final point can be made about the use of ekphrasisin the Lives and
Vasari's own predilections as an artist. The rich narrative ekphrasishad a new
and different relationship to art when it became the programme for the
complex historical or allegorical works of the mid-century. The numerous
pages of instructions from Annibale Caro to Taddeo Zuccaro about the
decoration of a single room dedicated to Sleep are a grotesque exaggeration
of ekphrasis.59 There is no longer any interest in expressive force but rather in
a kind of allegorical meaning to which expression is but incidental. Thus the
descriptions in the Lives are, in a sense, a connecting link between the earlier
and the later art. But the tables are turned. Ekphrasisas complex allegory
now becomes the motivating force behind art itself, and the artist consciously
tries to paint this sheer complexity of meaning. It has been noted that Vasari
often picks out details of a picture rather than considering the total picture as
a single narration. His own art is composed in just such meaningful details
which have the force of separate conceits. Ekphrasisas a particular kind of
narrative is made, in this way, an aesthetic principle rather than a rhetorical
form. Appearances to the contrary, it is in this sense that Vasari the artist
takes the advice he gives to other artists and follows Raphael's invenzione.
II
It remains to be proved that the Livespresent imitation as the perfectible
means and narration as the constant end of art. To do this let us approach
56 Nat. Hist., XXV. xxxvi. 98-99. Vasari sion. The dead figure as a traditional "ex-
changes the story so that it is the child, not pression" appears in Alberti, who says, "Cio
the mother, who is dying. che ve si dh ad exprimere uno corpo morto,
5~VI, 464. The grouping of the dead qual cosa certo 6 difficilissima; pero che in
children and the feelings of the mother and uno corpo chi sapra fingere ciascuno membro
the soldier as effettishows Vasari cleaving to otioso sara optimo artefice" (p.
the conventional notion of the closeness be- 113).
58 II, 623-4; V,
532.
tween the communicative force of the real 59 VII, 115-29.
imitation of death and real emotional expres-
the problem from the other side-by discussing Vasari's terms and their use
in his analysis of the history of art and discovering where the values revealed
by the ekphrasesfit in. The new hypothesis is thus that absolute perfection
refers not to the general perfection of art, but to the particular perfection of
the representational means; the ends are susceptible not to a single perfection
but to infinite variety.
As we have argued at the beginning, it is wrong-and, what is more,
results in an undervaluation-to consider Vasari as a theorist posing the
questions, "What is art?" or "What makes perfect art?" Probably the most
significant feature about Vasari's attitude in writing the Livesis his belief that
he has witnessed the perfection of the arts in his own time. He is rather a
champion of sixteenth-century art who asks, "What makes the art of Michel-
angelo and Raphael and their time perfect?" The perfection of art was
already a Renaissance commonplace. Vasari's achievement does not lie in
giving an exact definition of perfection-or for that matter of terms such as
disegnoor invenzione-but in the complex phenomena that he assembles under
the term. His conviction about the quality of contemporary art is developed
in the Lives into a concern for the general problem of quality in the art of
other periods. As Vasari says, "E mi sono ingegnato non solo di dire quel che
hanno fatto, ma di scegliere ancora . . . il meglio dal buono e l'ottimo dal
migliore,... investigando ... le cause e le radici delle maniere e del migliora-
mento e peggioramento delle arti, accaduto in diversi tempi e in diverse
persone."60 This is also a statement of Vasari's historical point of view. He
is not interested in the problems of how to approach the past, but in giving
aesthetic instruction through historical example.
If we begin by examining the terminology Vasari employs to describe a
work of art, we find that, like his aestheticjudgments, it is based on experience:
not the experience of the contemporary viewer but that of the artist. Although
disegnoand invenzioneare rhetorical terms that Alberti had already applied to
art, Vasari deduces them anew from the practice of the artist and then applies
them as the theoretical terms with which we are familiar in the prefaces to
parts II and III of the Lives.
The most complete account of the terms disegnoand invenzioneis given at
the beginning of the section on painting in the technical introduction to the
Lives. They are presented in the context of the actual practice of the art of
painting. Disegno and invenzioneare thus particularly related to painting,
although they are elsewhere called the father and mother of the three arts.61
In the first edition, Vasari describes disegnoas the contours of objects (particu-
larly those of the nude human figure) drawn from life or art. Disegnois simply
the skill of representing the forms of nature in art-the first requirement in
making a picture-and good disegnois at the root of Vasari's praise of exact
copies of nature. The 'Mona Lisa', for example, is "cosa pii divina che
umana a vederlo, ed era tenuta cosa maravigliosa, per non essere il vivo altri-
menti."62 In the second edition, Vasari added the following passage to his
definition of disegno:
60 62
II, 94. IV, 40.
e6 I, I68; II, II.
II disegno, padre delle tre arti nostre ... cava di molte cose un giudizio
universale; simile a una forma ovvero idea di tutte le cose della natura, la
quale e singolarissima nelle sue misure..... E perche da questa cognizione
nasce un certo concetto e giudizio, che si forma nella mente quella tal cosa
che poi espressa con le mani si chiama disegno; si puo conchiudere che
esso disegno altro non sia, che una apparente espressione e dichiarazione
del concetto che si ha nell' animo, e di quello che altri si e nella mente im-
maginato e fabbricato nell' idea.63
We can understand this passage in terms of the history of the term idea, as
Panofsky has done,64 or in terms of the notion of imitating nature-but we
must recognize that Vasari is speaking as an artist.65 Although read by itself
it sounds like a theoretical statement, it actually presents a quite practical
description of the combined mental and physical process of imitating nature
in art: the observation, the memory in the mind of the observer and the hand
drawing from this onto the paper.
If disegnois done as it ought to be-by selecting for imitation the most
beautiful things in nature-it shows "buona grazia e bella maniera".66 Grazia,
in Vasari's own definition, is working beyond the rules,67 and seems to be a
primitive statement of the eighteenth century je ne sais quoi. The importance
given it in the Lives has been called "the crucial feature in the whole of
Vasari's theory"."6 But although the term is new, Vasari explicitly presents
it as the supreme facility and skill of representation. So also maniera,or style,
the working definition of which is one of Vasari's great accomplishments, is
clearly associated with representational skill.69
Having described how to make figures,70Vasari then directs the artist to
assemble them together in an istoriaby means of invenzione.Invenzioneis the
theme or narrative in the artist's mind to be worked out on paper. Thus
Vasari praises Giottino "non tanto per lo soggetto e per l'invenzione, quanto
per avere in essa mostrato l'artefice."'71 And Alberti's praise of invention-
that even without painting it is pleasing in itself72-is echoed by Vasari at
the beginning of his life of Alberti:
Grandissima comodita arrecano le lettere universalmente a tutti quegli
artefici che di quelle si dilettano, ma particolarmente agli scultori, pittori
ed architetti, aprendo la via all' invenzioni di tutte l'opere che si fanno.73
63 imitare il piu bello della natura in tutte le
I, x68.
64 "Idea": einBeitragzurBegriffsgeschichte
derfigure cosi scolpite come dipinte") produces
alterenKunsttheorie,Leipzig and Berlin, I924. bella maniera,which is said to result from "il
65 V. Scoti-Bertinelli has shown that Vin-
frequente ritrarre le cose pis belle ... e fare
cenzo Borghini is the source of this passage una figura di tutte quelle bellezze che piti si
(G. Vasariscrittore,Pisa, 1905). Vasari, how- poteva" (IV, 8).
ever, makes the apparently abstract defini- 70 Colour is subordinated to disegno,since it
tion quite practical by the context in which is regarded as "filling in".
he places it. 71 I, 628.
66
I, I73. 72 p. 145.
67IV, 9. 73 II, 535. In the Lives,invenzione
also refers
68 to the painting itself, although Vasari charac-
Blunt, p. 93.
69 This close
relationship between disegno teristically does not deal with this ambiguity
and manierais revealed in the preface to in definition.
Book III, where attention to disegno ("lo
2o6 SVETLANA LEONTIEF ALPERS
Good invention involves the two rhetorical principles of appropriateness ("una
convenevolezza formata di concordanza ed obbedienza") and copiousness
("piena di cose variate e differenti l'una dall' altra").74 Thus invention not
only provides the theme according to which the artist puts the figures together
but also introduces a variety of figures and ornaments that are not the prime
concern of disegno. The sum of disegnoand invenzioneis the istoria-a term
Vasari seldom uses, although it is implicit in all his descriptions of paintings
as moving stories of human actions and passion.75
The plan of the Lives relates the gradual perfecting of the arts-in other
words, the joint perfection of disegnoand invenzione.That at least is what one
would assume from Vasari's coupling of design, invention and even colour in
such remarks about the third period as, "Ma quello che importa il tutto di
questa arte ', che l'hanno ridotta oggi talmente perfetta, e facile per chi
possiede il disegno, l'invenzione ed il colorito, che dove prima da que' nostri
maestri si faceva una tavola in sei anni, oggi in un anno questi maestri ne
fanno sei."76 But in the Lives, disegnoand invenzione,besides being used as
critical terms about individual works, also represent the two main elements in
the historical development of art. If we try to find examples of perfect disegno
and perfect invenzione,we find them not in one painting or in one man, but
in separate works and in two men. In the second edition, they are clearly
treated as two different aspects of art. Michangelo in the 'Last Judgement'
chooses disegno:
Basta che si vede, che l'intenzione di questo uomo singulare non ha
voluto entrare in dipignere altro che la perfetta e proporzionatissimacom-
posizione del corpo umano, ed in diversissime attitudini; non sol questo,
ma insieme gli affetti delle passioni e contentezza dell' animo, bastandogli
satisfare in quella parte; nel che e stato superiore a tutti i suoi artefici;
e mostrare la via della gran maniera e degli ignudi, e quanto e' sappi nelle
difficulth del disegno; e finalmente ha aperto la via alla facilith di questa
arte nel principale suo intento, che e il corpo umano; ed attendendo a
questo fin solo, ha lassato da parte le vaghezze de' colori, i capricci e le
nuove fantasie di certe minuzie e delicatezze, che da molti altri pittori non
sono interamente, e forse non senza qualche ragione, state neglette.77
On the other hand, speaking of Raphael's 'Peter in Prison', Vasari says:
Veramente se gli pu6 dar vanto che nella invenzioni dei componimenti,
di che storie si fossero, nessuno giammai pidi di lui nella pittura e stato
accomodato ed aperto e valente .... Egli [ha] cercato di continuo figurare
le storie come esse sono scritte, e farvi dentro cose garbate e eccellenti.78
Michelangelo does perfect nudes and Raphael tells a story in paint with
74 I, 173. meanings. His use of the term istoriain the
75Alberti calls the theme in the mind an introduction we have been discussing is
invention and says that the istoria (in other exceptional.
words, the painting) is copious and various. 76 IV, I3.
Vasari, with his usual lack of interest in 77 VII, 210.
to cover both
precise definition, uses invenzione 78 IV, 343-4-
appropriate costumes and portraits. These are not merely two aspects but
two alternatives in art.
The distinction between Raphael and Michelangelo was not original with
Vasari. Dolce, although awarding the palm to Titian, named Raphael as
best in invention and decorum, Michelangelo in disegno. But Vasari treats
disegnoand invenzione not as different sources of perfection, but rather as sources
of different kinds of perfection. Only disegno,according to him, reaches a
single unique perfection, for there are an infinite number and variety of perfect
inventions. This distinction represents Vasari's interpretation of the history
of art from Giotto to Michelangelo as the history of the perfection of disegno,
or the means of representation. This is what Vasari literally means when he
says of Michelangelo that the artists of his time "hanno veduto squarciato il
velo delle difficulta di quello che si pu6 fare ed immaginare nelle pitture e
sculture ed architetture fatte da lui."79
We can see Vasari working out this distinction in the two successive
editions of the Lives. In I550 the plan of the book leads up to the complete
perfection of Michelangelo: the perfection of disegnois simply the complete
perfection of art, and Vasari leaves us with the question, "What next?" How
does art continue at all, if it does not completely decline, after its perfection?
In the second edition, as Schlosser80so and others have remarked, this neat
unified order is sacrificed. But the sacrifice is only a superficial, formal one.
The addition of the other living artists besides Michelangelo and particularly
the presentation of Raphael's invenzioneas an alternative to Michelangelo's
disegnoaffirm that art will go on and not necessarily decline. The crux of
Vasari's answer to the question posed by the first edition is revealed in the
new analysis of Raphael's style. It is certainly true, as Venturi has written,
that "al progressivo esaltamento della prima edizione, il Vasari sostituisce
nella seconda una chiarezza critica insuperabile . .. l'idea della particolare
perfezione di Raffaello."81 But it is wrong to read this purely as a critical
insight about Raphael-an interpretation tempting to make because Vasari's
view of Raphael is very close to our own. The account of Raphael's relation-
ship to Michelangelo is as much a critical statement about art as about
Raphael and Michelangelo. Such a larger critical concern here works hand
in hand with Vasari's criticism of the individual artist. Vasari says of Raphael:
Ma conoscendo nondimeno che non poteva in questa parte arrivare alla
perfezione di Michelagnolo; come uomo di grandissimo giudizio, consider6
che la pittura non consiste solamente in fare uomini nudi, ma che ell' ha
il campo largo, e che fra i perfetti dipintori si possono anco coloro anno-
verare che sanno esprimere bene e con facilita I'invenzioni delle storie ed
i loro capricci con bel giudizio, e che nel fare i componimenti delle storie
chi sa non confonderle col troppo, ed anco farle non povere col poco, ma
con bella invenzione ed ordine accomodarle, si pu6 chiamare valente e
giudizioso artefice. A questo, siccome bene and6 pensando Raffaello,
s'aggiugne lo arricchirle con la varieth e stravaganza delle prospettiva,
de' casamenti, e de' paesi; il leggiadro modo di vestire le figure; il fare
79 81 Studi
VII, 215. Vasariani, pp. 42-43.
so Die Kunstliteratur,
p. 257.
che elle si perdino alcuna volta nello scuro, ed alcuna volta venghino
innanzi col chiaro; il fare vive e belle le teste delle femmine, de' putti, de'
giovani e de' vecchi, e dar loro, secondo il bisogno, movenza e bravura.
Consider6 anco quanto importi la fuga de' cavalli nelle battaglie, la
fierezza de' soldati, il saper fare tutte le sorti d'animali, e sopratutto il far
in modo nei ritratti somigliar gli uomini, che paino vivi e si conoschino
per chi eglino sono fatti; ed altre cose infinite, come sono abigliamenti di
panni, calzari, celate, armadure, acconciature di femmine, capegli, barbe,
vasi, alberi, grotte, sassi, fuochi, arie torbide e serene, nuvoli, pioggie,
saette, sereni, notte, lumi di luna, splendori di sole, ed infinite altre cose
che seco portano ognora i bisogni dell' arte della pittura.82
The "fare uomini nudi" refers of course to Michelangelo's achievement, and
il campo largo", as the list that follows shows, consists of all the other elements
in painting besides the "uomini nudi"-all those things which did not concern
Michelangelo-namely portraits, landscapes, animals, effects such as flying
draperies, emotions such as the soldier's courage, natural phenomena such as
the storm and finally a variety of real details. But Vasari is not simply saying
that while Michelangelo made perfect nudes Raphael and his followers painted
all the other possible things to be painted. Since Vasari assumes that the
supreme difficulty is presented by the representation of the nude, one might
legitimately conclude that for him the entire skill of painting consists in over-
coming, as Michelangelo did, the difficulties of doing the nude.83 The "fare
uomini nudi" may thus be understood as disegno-not complete perfection but
the only possible area of absolute perfection in art.84
Invenzione,as we saw it in the technical preface, provides the narrative
theme and the various and appropriate figures and ornaments to narrate that
theme. Since the mastery of the nude itself represents complete technical
proficiency, invenzioneconcerns not further skills, but rather the telling of the
story. It is really part of the istoriaand thus supplies the basis for ekphrasis,
which, as we have seen, assumes the technical means and is concerned with
the rich and psychologically true narrative. "I1 campo largo" refers to the
invention in this sense of narrative ends. It suggests the great number and
variety of things which the artist can make by utilizing rather than by vainly
attempting to improve upon the already perfected means of Michelangelo.
If the list of new interests is more concerned with the depiction of various
82 can without further lessons paint one of any
IV, 375.
83 Vasari states this parenthetically in his figure or time of life . . . there being no art
description of his own works-"per non dir whatever wherein all its possibilities require
nulla de' corpi ignudi, nei quali consiste la professorial teaching, since those who have
perfezione delle nostre arti" (VII, 702). The rightly learned the general principles of
original statement of this idea is probably fundamental and established things, attain
Cicero's description of the training of the the rest without difficulty and unaided." De
orator, in which he uses the analogy of the Oratore,II. xvi. 69, tr. E. W. Sutton, London:
artist: "Just as in the other arts, when the Loeb Classical Library, 1948, p.
249.
hardest portions of each have been taught, 84This is not to say that Vasari denied
the rest, through being either easier or just Michelangelo's expressiveness-but that seen
like the former, call for no teaching; as in in an historical dimension, his accomplish-
painting, for instance, he who has thoroughly ment is to perfect the means.
learned how to paint the semblance of a man,
objects than of expressions as such (the soldier's courage being the exception),
it must be remembered how seldom Vasari gives an example of emotional
expression outside of the descriptions themselves. As we said at the beginning,
the perfettaregolais not concerned with expressiveness, which is mainly pre-
sented by the ekphrases.In the introduction to the third part, however, Vasari
does make one of his rare, pointed references to expression when he compli-
ments Raphael "riservando alle modeste la modestia, alle lascive la lascivia,
ed ai putti ora i vizi negli occhi, ed ora i giuochi nell' attitudini."85 Adding
to this Vasari's comment that in the 'Imprisonment of Peter' Raphael not
only introduces beautiful things but follows the tale, we know that Vasari
particularly credits this master with expressive narrations. (It was, in fact,
Vasari himself, not Raphael, who painted, and boasted of painting, such a
gloriously copious list as the one quoted; compare Vasari's description of his
Sala dei Cinquecento86 with his list of Raphael's interests.) The main point
is that with Michelangelo the technical equipment of the painter has been
completed, disegnois perfected, and the artist must now cultivate the end of
art, making inventions.
In the 1563 edition, Michelangelo still marks an end, but Vasari does not
expect a necessary decline after the peak of Michelangelo's perfection, nor
some kind of lesser, more widespread perfection. The cyclical theory of the
rise and fall of art proposed in the preface to the first part8" is often understood
to mean that the quartaeta"is a let-down after Michelangelo. The cyclical
theory is in fact not rigorously applied by Vasari to the history of Renaissance
art. The fear of a decline after perfection, stated both in the preface to part II
and in the second dedication to Duke Cosimo, can be explained as rhetorical
attempts to praise, to the highest possible degree, the art of Michelangelo
and the patronage of the Duke.88 The perfection of disegnoby Michelangelo
represents the realization of the slow perfection of the skills of art that is traced
in the introductions. To say that the Livestraces the history of the perfection
of disegnoand that the invenzione,seen in the ekphrasis,presents the infinite
narrative variety of art is, in effect, to replace means and ends with Vasari's
terms.
III
Vasari's notion of disegnopresents art as a progressive craft-a strange
mixture of new and old ideas about art which, if one accepts the limitations
of the approach, is a sound analysis of the change from Giotto to Michelangelo.
This is what we would call a change in style: as Vasari says, in the preface to
part II, he wants to investigate "le cause e le radici delle maniere".89 There-
fore we could say that the progress of disegnois, for Vasari, tantamount to a
85 IV, 12. vecchiareed il morire"(I, 243).
86 VII, 701-2. 88 Panofsky argues in just the opposite way
87 "La fortuna, quando ella ha condotto that Vasari changed from having no notion
altri al sommo della ruota, o per ischerzo o of cyclical decay in the first edition to a notion
per pentimento il pid"delle volte lo torna in of possible contemporary decline in the
fondo" (I, 228). "La natura di quest' arte second. The argument must depend on a
simile a quella dell' altre, che, come i corpi definition of Vasari's idea of perfection in art.
umani, hanno il nascere, il crescere, lo in- 89 II, 94*
3
20o SVETLANALEONTIEFALPERS
history of style. It is important to recognize that disegnois in no sense con-
cerned with the formal aspects of art. This is most clearly seen in the way
that we have seen Vasari describe the work of art itself. Disegnois not located
in a concrete part of an individual work, such as the arrangement of figures
and space in a composition. Disegno as imitation refers to the relationship
between the image and nature; invenzionecontrols the number and appro-
priate actions, not the placing of the figures. For us, as the heirs of W6lfflin,
it is something of a mental and visual adjustment to think of style not in a
formal dimension but in a representational and technical one. The analogy to
invenzioneand disegnois not form and content, but means and ends.90 This
notion of style is natural for Vasari to have, because rather than being
interested in the individual work as a composition, he immediately sees it as
part of an historical sequence of the developing means of imitating nature.
Disegno,one might say, exists in an historical dimension. In this sense, Vasari
is interested in style rather than in the individual.
Vasari's three ages of art, the place of the artists in this development, and
even to a certain extent the characterization of their individual styles are
determined by his insight about disegno. The history of style or the develop-
ment of the perfect means of narrative expression is set down in the preface
to Book II, where Vasari speaks "pit presto della qualita'de' tempi, che delle
persone distinte."91 Its three stages are illustrated by Giotto's 'Navicella',
Masaccio's 'Tribute Money', and Leonardo's 'Last Supper'. As I have already
suggested, we do not find the analysis of stylistic development in the description
of the particular paintings themselves, but rather in the more general state-
ments about the artists and their times. Vasari, for example, dismisses the
excellent disegnoof the 'Navicella' in one phrase: "la quale e veramente
miracolosa e meritamente lodata da tutti i belli ingegni; perche in essa, oltre
al disegno, vi e la disposizione degli Apostoli."92 It is easy to see and accept-
as art historians implicitly do today-the clear line of development Vasari
traces through the three painters:
E si vede in questa levato via il profilo che ricigneva per tutto le figure, e
quegli occhi spiritati e piedi ritti in punta e le mani aguzze, e ii non avere
ombre ed altre mostruosita'di que' Greci, e dato una buona grazia nelle
teste e morbidezza nel colorito.93
Egli desse principio alle belle attitudini, movenze, fierezze, e vivacita', ed

a un certo rilievo veramente proprio e naturale: il che infino a lui non
aveva mai fatto niun pittore.94
Quella terza maniera che noi vogliamo chiamare la moderna, oltra la

gagliardezza e bravezza del disegno, ed oltra il contraffare sottilissima-
mente tutte le minuzie della natura, cosi a punto come elle sono,... dette
veramente alle sue figure il moto ed il fiato.95
90 Schlosser suggested form and content as 93 II, 101.
the analogy (p. 286). 94 II, 288.
91 II, 95. 95 IV, II.
92 I, 386.
EKPHRASIS AND AESTHETIC ATTITUDES IN VASARI'S LIVES 211I
We may, however, find it difficult to accept the isolation of technical and

representational progress from other factors in describing development and
changes in art.
For Vasari, the history of art is a series of steps made up of the contribu-
tions of individuals. Each artist can take his place in this progress of art only
by virtue of making a contribution.96 The strongest statement of this is a
negative one-Vasari's summary of Boccaccino, who "senza aver mai fatto
alcun miglioramento nell' arte, passb di questa vita d' anni 58."91 Each artist
does not start anew but adds on to what has already been accomplished-with
reference not only to nature itself, but to nature as it has been treated in art
before (Giotto alone, as the first in line, has only nature to turn to). Part and
parcel of the idea of progress and contribution is the idea of problems peculiar
to art or "la difficulth di si belle, difficili ed onoratissime arti."98 The history
of art is, in other words, a continuous, autonomous and also a conscious
progress. Vasari does not admit to imposing this complex scheme on the
history of art. He rather attributes to the artists themselves conscious recogni-
tion of both the need for progress and the artistic problems to be overcome in
achieving it. Casentino, for example, feels that he can "avanzare in eccellenza
e Giotto e Taddeo e gli altri pittori",99 and the important innovators, who
were discussed earlier (again, except for Giotto, to whom disegnocomes
naturally), can state the problems in art as they see them. Masaccio "con-
siderato (non essendo la pittura altro che un contraffar tutte le cose della
natura viva, col disegno e co' colori semplicemente, come ci sono prodotte da
lei) che colui che ci6 pifi perfettamente consegue, si pub dire eccellente" ;100
while Leonardo "infine riusciva questo modo tanto tinto, che non vi rimanendo
chiaro, avevon pif forma di cose fatte per contraffare una notte, che una
finezza del lume del di: ma tutto era per cercare di dare maggiore rilievo, di
trovar il fine e la perfezione dell' arte."101 The fact that the artists so state
Vasari's ideas is partly the method, legitimate to a Renaissance historian, of
freely reading into his characters what he wants to come out. More signifi-
cantly, it reveals Vasari's assumption that art is an intelligible discipline and
that the historian can discover the true intention of the artist.
Giotto, Masaccio, and Leonardo represent the giant steps taken in the
solution of the difficulties of representation. In discovering, equalling, and
moving beyond nature, they are concerned with all the problems of disegno
for which Michelangelo's perfect nudes are the removing of the veil "delle
difficulth de quello che si pu6 fare ed immaginare".102 Vasari's willingness to
be flexible about chronological divisions and to judge cases individually is
shown by his treatment of Donatello, a fifteenth-century artist whose figures,
according to Vasari, are worthy to rank with modern art. With this single
exception, however, the artist in each period fulfils, but cannot go beyond,
the giant steps. Thus, "Iacopo di Casentino, Antonio Veniziano, Lippo e
96 E. H. Gombrichhas fully discussedthis 97 IV, 584-
notion of the contribution in his article, "The 98
II, I07.
Renaissance Concept of Artistic Progress and 99I, 669.
its Consequences", Actes du XVIIme Congres 100
II, 288.
Internationaled'Histoire de L'Art, Amsterdam 101
IV, 26.
1952, The Hague, 1955, PP- 291-307. 102 VII, 215-
Gherardo Starnini, e gli altri pittori che lavorarono dopo Giotto, seguendo la
sua aria, lineamento, colorito e maniera, ed ancora migliorandola qualche
poco; ma non tanto per6, che e' paresse che la volessino tirare ad altro
segno."'03 But we see the breadth of Vasari's observation in the variety of
small steps that he cites. This is not due to generosity, but to Vasari's frankly
untheoretical approach. He praises Fra Bartolommeo, for example, for his
tone, and Titian for his colour.'04 It is a sign of the attention paid to technique
and a tribute to the notion of progress that even a purely technical innovation
-such as Luca Della Robbia's painted terra cotta relief work-is singled out
for praise, although somewhat apologetically since Vasari does not think he
is otherwise a good artist.
Although Vasari has called his history of art the Lives of the Painters,and
although in it the education of the artist, to whom the book is in part addressed,
assumes the importance of that of the prince, the fame for which the artist
works involves a kind of sacrifice of individuality. Vasari established both the
notion of art as a series of problems and the idea that progress could be made,
but it is a far cry from Vasari's artists contributing to Art itself to a modern
artist's progressing in his own art. In so far as Vasari sees art as the develop-
ment of style, it is necessarily anti-individualistic.105 This is implicit in the
tone and manner with which he praises the artist's contribution. About
Antonello da Messina he says, "Quando io considero meco medesimo le
diverse qualith de' benefizj ed utili che hanno fatto all' arte della pittura
molti maestri che hanno seguitato questa seconda maniera, non posso,
mediante le loro operazioni, se non chiamarli veramente industriosi ed eccel-
lenti."'06 In mentioning Titian and Sebastiano del Piombo he says, "De'
quali a suo luogo si dira pienamente l'onore e l'utile che hanno fatto a questa
arte."107 Finally he says of Polidoro and Maturino that "pih utilith hanno
essi fatto all' arte della pittura, per la bella maniera che avevano e per la bella
facilitY, che tutti gli altri da Cimabue in qua insieme non hanno fatto."'08
The individual has no power to determine the character of the predetermined
103 II, I02. tween Zeuxis, Aglaophon and Apelles, while

104 This idea is stated by Castiglione in II at the same time there is not one among them
Cortegianoin a digression on language which who can be thought to lack any factor in his
becomes an argument for diversity of style. art" (Loeb, p.
23).
"N6 6 natura alcune che non abbia in se 105 This emphasis on the historical develop-
molte cose della medesima sorte dissimili ment of art as something above and beyond
l'una dall' altra, le quali per6 son tra s6 di the individual's own character in no way
egual laude degne.... Eccovi che nella pit- contradicts, or conflicts, in Vasari's presenta-
tura sono eccellentissimi Leonardo Vincio, il tion, with his interest in artists as great men
Mantegria, Raffaello, Michelangelo, Georgio contributing to the progress of art. C. L.
da Castelfranco: nientedimeno, tutti son tra Ragghianti (pp. 762 ff.) has discussed this
s6 nel far dissimili; di modo che ad alcun di interest in "uomini divini" and properly con-
loro non par che manchi cosa alcuna in quella nected it with the ideas of Machiavelli and
maniera, perche si conosce ciascun nel suo Giucciardini-the contemporary historians to
stil essere perfettissimo." II Cortegiano,ed. whom Vasari probably refersat the beginning
Vittorio Cian, Florence, I9I0, pp. of the introduction to the second part.
9I, 93
(I. 7). The original source is probably 106 II, 563-
Cicero, De Oratore,III. vii. 26. "There is a 107 IV, Ioo.

single art and method of painting, and never- 108 V, 144.
theless there is an extreme dissimilarity be-
and continuous development of style. If one person does not conquer a certain
difficulty, another will. Rather than treating the style of the time, its artistic
vocabulary, and the individual artist as two separate interacting factors,
Vasari combines them into the single image of the artist making style. The
relationship between the artist and style is the same as that between the artist
and the story. The artist does not interpret the story, he narrates it. So he
does not use stylistic conventions individually, but can only contribute to a
common style.
This is, in turn, connected with the suggestion made in the discussion of
invenzioneand disegnothat Vasari does not start with the single works and with
the oeuvreof the various masters. He sees the works as steps in the develop-
ment of means of representation, rather than as uses of those means.109 It is
in this sense that Vasari writes a history of style, not of works or artists.
Each of the contributors is further discussed in terms of his own style.
Vasari applies maniera,which I have until now used to mean the general
situation of art at a particular time, to the particular style of the artist. At
the most general level, Vasari recognizes that each artist has his own maniera:
he says he knows "le varie maniere degli artefici, che si faccia un dotto e
pratico cancelliere in diversi e variati scritti de' suoi eguali, e ciascuno i
caratteri de' suoi pidi stretti famigliari amici e congiunti."110 Students often
ape their master, so that, as Vasari says of Signorelli, "imit6 in modo la
maniera di detto Pietro, che quasi l'una dall' altra non si conosceva."111
Vasari explains a personal manner on psychological grounds. An extreme
case is Parri Spinelli, who was attacked by some relations and so terrified that
"secondo che si dice, la paura che egli ebbe, cagione che, oltre al fare le figure
pendenti in sur un lato, le fece quasi sempre da indi in poi spaventaticce."112
It is in fact this link between the style and the man that Vasari uses to connect
the lives of the artists and their works. In the cases of Piero di Cosimo,
Uccello and Pontormo, he conveys the character of the art most vividly
through the narration of biographical incident. Some of Vasari's strongest
characterizations of individual style are in a criticizing vein, because the
artists who least appeal to him are the most eccentric and the easiest to
characterize. We see this in his description of Uccello's "maniera secca e
piena di profili"113or of Mantegna's stone-like figures.
Although every artist has a style as characteristic as his handwriting, the
adjectives Vasari uses to describe the manieraof different artistsdivide generally
into two groups. Words like dura,cruda,secca,and taglienteon the one hand,
and morbidae pastosa,delicatae dolceon the other. The first group describes a
studied style, pursued for its own sake, the second a more natural one, de-
veloped with reference to nature. The style of the individual, like style con-
sidered as the general progress of art, is thus made a matter of representation,
although this point is hidden behind the variety of descriptive adjectives.
Since manierais used to refer to the imitation of nature, it is only given the
force of "mannered" with a modifier such as dura.
109 A possible exception is the Life of 110 VII, 727.
Raphael, in which the individual develop- 111 III, 684-.
ment and the general problem of stylistic 112 II, 284-
development coincide. 113
II, 203.
Vasari is often discussed in terms of his use of the term maniera-particu-
larly in this forward-looking sense of "mannerism". But what is significant is
not Vasari's definition of maniera,but rather his selection and evaluation of
those phenomena that he sees as mannered. As in the case of disegno,Vasari's
use of the term is finally more subtle than any single definition that he, or we,
could give it. The successive lives of Desiderio da Settignano and his pupil,
Mino da Fiesole, dramatize the opposition between a mannered style and the
imitation of nature. Vasari praises Desiderio for "grazia e simplicita", and
begins his account by saying, "Grandissimo obbligo hanno al cielo e alla
natura coloro che senza fatiche partoriscono le cose loro con una certa
grazia."114 Mino, on the other hand, was of those who only imitate their
master: "Non arrivano per6 mai con questo solo alla perfezione dell' arte ...
perche la imitazione della natura e ferma nella maniera di quello artefice,
che ha fatto la lunga pratica diventare maniera."115 While in this case the
advice is to be like Desiderio and to imitate nature instead of other artists,
Vasari gives the opposite advice to the fifteenth-century artists. "Quella fine
e quel certo che, che ci mancava, non lo potevano mettere cosi presto in atto,
avvenga che lo studio insecchisce la maniera, quando egli e preso per terminare
i fini in quel modo."'16 The duality for Vasari is not between style which
imitates art and that which imitates life, but between style as an end in itself
(even though it refers to life as well as to art) and style which imitates nature
as it is found in life and art.
Vasari's indictment is thus not of manieraitself-which after all is the
imitative skill of art-but of manieraas an end in itself. This is essentially a
criticism of too much study and effort in painting, or a criticism of paintings
that look as if too much effort had been put into them."7 The implied cause
of such effort is the artist's failure to understand the problems of art-in its
true progress, as Vasari would add. (We might add that failure to understand
perhaps can be the artist's purposeful refusal to pursue certain problems in
favour of his own interests.) This is the basis of Vasari's explanation and
association of the crises in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century art. In a brilliant
analysis, he suggests that the only escape from the mannered style of the
fifteenth-century artists, who studied to make exact nudes, was Leonardo's
new technique of sfumato;while the mannered style produced by those who
attempted to further perfect the nudes of Michelangelo could only be changed
by using these developed means to follow Raphael in invention. Vasari is
here describing similar visual symptoms of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century
art, and he implies a similar general cause; but he gives separate analyses
suited to the two very different problems in art that are involved. He is able
to do this because a mannered style is not a definition for him, but a symptom
of an artistic situation. In the ekphrasesaesthetic criticism is based on a
standard procedure; in the analysis of style it is based on observation.
Vasari is often cited as a forerunner of mannerist theory who introduced
terms such as manieraand grazia. By investigating him as a unique figure,
seeing what he did with common terms rather than working from his terms
114 117 This was Apelles' criticism of Protogenes
III, I07.
115 III, 115. as reported by Pliny (Nat. Hist., XXXV.
116
IV, 10. xxxvi. 8o).
out to a larger context, we can see that his achievement lies behind the
facade
of terms. He is not a forward-looking theorist so much as a quite conservative,
pragmatic critic of art history, whose real innovations-such as the distinction
between means and ends and the definition of style-have not been noticed
and were never picked up.

Svetalana Alpers-Ekphrasis and Aesthetic Attitudes in Vasari's Lives

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Author(s): Svetlana Leontief Alpers

By Svetlana Leontief Alpers

a-Giotto, 'Navicella', St. Peter's, Rome (p. 192)

c-Piero di Cosimo, 'Andromeda', Uffizi, Florence (p. 201)

a-Raphael, 'Entombment', Borghese Gallery,

b-Benvenuto Garofalo, 'Massacre of

S Della Pittura in Leone Battista Albertis noticeable difference between Philostratus

Egli desse principio alle belle attitudini, movenze, fierezze, e vivacita', ed

Quella terza maniera che noi vogliamo chiamare la moderna, oltra la

We may, however, find it difficult to accept the isolation of technical and

103 II, I02. tween Zeuxis, Aglaophon and Apelles, while

Cicero, De Oratore,III. vii. 26. "There is a 107 IV, Ioo.

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Ekphrasis and Aesthetic Attitudes in Vasari's Lives

Author(s): Svetlana Leontief Alpers

By Svetlana Leontief Alpers

a-Giotto, 'Navicella', St. Peter's, Rome (p. 192)

c-Piero di Cosimo, 'Andromeda', Uffizi, Florence (p. 201)

a-Raphael, 'Entombment', Borghese Gallery,

b-Benvenuto Garofalo, 'Massacre of

S Della Pittura in Leone Battista Albertis noticeable difference between Philostratus

Egli desse principio alle belle attitudini, movenze, fierezze, e vivacita', ed

Quella terza maniera che noi vogliamo chiamare la moderna, oltra la

We may, however, find it difficult to accept the isolation of technical and

103 II, I02. tween Zeuxis, Aglaophon and Apelles, while

Cicero, De Oratore,III. vii. 26. "There is a 107 IV, Ioo.

You might also like

Svetalana Alpers-Ekphrasis and Aesthetic Attitudes in Vasari's Lives

Svetalana Alpers-Ekphrasis and Aesthetic Attitudes in Vasari's Lives