Vasari relates that Nicola Pisano constantly studied these Roman remains and the Roman sculptures from Augustan times seem to have marked a deep impression on him.

Giorgio Vasari states that they are the work of " Barna of Siena " and relates that Barna fell to his death from the scaffolding.

Giorgio Vasari coined the term " Gothic " in an effort to describe, particularly architecture, that he found objectionable, supposedly saying " it is as if the Goths built it ".

On the other hand, others bemoaned the austere Roman culture during his papacy ; Giorgio Vasari in 1567 spoke of a time when " the grandeurs of this place reduced by stinginess of living, dullness of dress, and simplicity in so many things ; Rome is fallen into much misery, and if it is true that Christ loved poverty and the City wishes to follow in his steps she will quickly become beggarly ...".

In 1500, when he was only twenty-three ( that is, if Vasari is correct about his age when he died ), he was chosen to paint portraits of the Doge Agostino Barbarigo and the condottiere Consalvo Ferrante.

The Bramantino of Vasari, if he existed at all, worked for Pope Nicholas V between 1450 and 1455.

Vasari says that for two days people young and old flocked to see the drawing as if they were attending a festival.

Salai executed a number of paintings under the name of Andrea Salai, but although Vasari claims that Leonardo " taught him a great deal about painting ", his work is generally considered to be of less artistic merit than others among Leonardo's pupils, such as Marco d ' Oggione and Boltraffio.

Vasari describes how Leonardo, troubled over his ability to adequately depict the faces of Christ and the traitor Judas, told the Duke that he might be obliged to use the prior as his model.

Giorgio Vasari, in the enlarged edition of Lives of the Artists, 1568, introduced his chapter on Leonardo da Vinci with the following words:

According to Vasari, who was not only the architect of the Uffizi but also the author of Lives of the Artists, published in 1550 and 1568, artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo gathered at the Uffizi " for beauty, for work and for recreation.

The painting's title Mona Lisa stems from a description by Giorgio Vasari: " Leonardo undertook to paint, for Francesco del Giocondo, the portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife ...."

According to Leonardo's contemporary, Giorgio Vasari, "... after he had lingered over it four years, left it unfinished ...." Leonardo, later in his life, is said to have regretted " never having completed a single work ".

Vasari stated, about the Mona Lisa by Leonardo http :// en. wikipedia. org / wiki / Mona_Lisa, that it had been commissioned by Francesco del Giocondo and that he had left it unfinished.

Vasari mentions an important event in Giorgione's life, and one which had influence on his work, his meeting with Leonardo da Vinci on the occasion of the Tuscan master's visit to Venice in 1500.

According to Vasari, Andrea resolved never to touch the brush again because Leonardo, his pupil, had far surpassed him, but later critics consider this story apocryphal.

These matters were considered of great importance by artist-theorists such as Leon Battista Alberti, Leonardo da Vinci, and Giorgio Vasari.

According to Vasari, he apprenticed in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio alongside Leonardo da Vinci, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Lorenzo di Credi, Filippino Lippi and others.

The promotion of the fine arts over the decorative in European thought can largely be traced to the Renaissance, when Italian theorists such as Vasari promoted artistic values, exemplified by the artists of the High Renaissance, that placed little value on the cost of materials or the amount of skilled work required to produce a work, but instead valued artistic imagination and the individual touch of the hand of a supremely gifted master such as Michelangelo, Raphael or Leonardo da Vinci, reviving to some extent the approach of antiquity.

The earliest reference to it is by the biographer Giorgio Vasari who, writing in the mid 16th century, says that the work was created while Leonardo was in Florence, as a guest of the Servite Monastery.

Vasari, who is generally thought to have known the painting only by repute, said that " the smile was so pleasing that it seemed divine rather than human ; and those who saw it were amazed to find that it was as alive as the original ".

Of the same years is the Crucifixion in the Royal Museum of Antwerp: his early works shows a marked Flemish influence, which it is now understood he derived from his master Colantonio and from works by Rogier van der Weyden and Jan van Eyck that belonged to Colantonio's patron, Alfonso V of Aragon ; his biographer Vasari remarked that Antonello saw at Naples an oil painting by Jan Van Eyck ( the " Lomellini Tryptych ") belonging to King Alfonso V of Aragon ; Vasari's further narrative, that being struck by the new method, set out for the Netherlands to acquire a knowledge of the process from Van Eyck's disciples is discredited today.

It is evidence of the facility with which he acquired the rapid execution of a scene-painter that he was selected to co-operate with Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Battista Franco and Francesco de ' Rossi ( Il Salviati ) to re-decorate the Porta San Sebastiano at Rome as a triumphal arch ( 5 April 1536 ) in honour of Charles V. Giorgio Vasari, who saw the battle-pieces which Heemskerk then produced, said they were well composed and boldly executed.

Manetti, followed by Vasari, named the Florentine architect and sculptor Bernardo Rossellino as the person responsible for a series of building projects carried out throughout the Papal States at the orders of Pope Nicholas and his name is usually associated with the project in Viterbo.

He designed many buildings in Rome, which included work at the Villa Giulia complex ( in collaboration with Vignola and Vasari ), also at Lucca and Florence.

Vasari also agreed with this.

Vasari is also credited with first using the term " Renaissance " ( rinascita ), the period during which he was art historian, artist, and architect.

His depiction of a fierce lion fighting with a venom-spouting snake was especially appreciated by Vasari.

Three frescoes in the Sala Regia Palace of the Vatican depicting the events were painted by Giorgio Vasari, and a commemorative medal was issued with Gregory's portrait and on the obverse a chastising angel, sword in hand and the legend (" Massacre of the Huguenots ").

In the book Vasari was attempting to define what he described as a break with the barbarities of gothic art: the arts had fallen into decay with the collapse of the Roman Empire and only the Tuscan artists, beginning with Cimabue ( 1240 – 1301 ) and Giotto ( 1267 – 1337 ) began to reverse this decline in the arts.

According to Vasari, at their prompting in 1423 Masaccio travelled to Rome with Masolino: from that point he was freed of all Gothic and Byzantine influence, as may be seen in his altarpiece for the Carmelite Church in Pisa.

Vasari emphasises that Raphael ran a very harmonious and efficient workshop, and had extraordinary skill in smoothing over troubles and arguments with both patrons and his assistants — a contrast with the stormy pattern of Michelangelo's relationships with both.

Baviero Carocci, called " Il Baviera " by Vasari, an assistant who Raphael evidently trusted with his money, ended up in control of most of the copper plates after Raphael's death, and had a successful career in the new occupation of a publisher of prints.

Vasari claims he had toyed with the ambition of becoming a Cardinal, perhaps after some encouragement from Leo, which also may account for his delaying his marriage.

According to Vasari, Raphael's premature death on Good Friday ( April 6, 1520 ), which was possibly his 37th birthday, was caused by a night of excessive sex with Luti, after which he fell into a fever and, not telling his doctors that this was its cause, was given the wrong cure, which killed him.

* Nearly four centuries later Giorgio Vasari wrote: " Guglielmo, according to what is being said, in year 1174 with Bonanno as sculptor, laid the foundations of the belltower of the cathedral in Pisa.

The edifice was numerous times restored and renovated ; the interior has a court from the 16th century, a stone statue portraying a Madonna with Child ( 1339 ), frescoes, busts of illustrious Aretines, two paintings by Giorgio Vasari.

In 1547 Vasari completes the hall of the chancery in Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome with frescoes that received the name Sala dei Cento Giorni.

The view of the Loggia from the Arno reveals that, with the Vasari Corridor, it is one of very few structures that line the river which are open to the river itself and appear to embrace the riverside environment.

In Florence, Vasari also built the long passage, now called Vasari Corridor, which connects the Uffizi with the Palazzo Pitti on the other side of the river.

In Rome, Vasari worked with Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and Bartolomeo Ammanati at Pope Julius III's Villa Giulia.