Observations on the «many manners» of Giorgio Vasari’s architectural works
As it is well known, Giorgio Vasari held Michelangelo in the highest regard and already in the 1550 edition
of his Vite,
while the master was still alive, he got to the point of considering him to be «something rather
divine than earthly». It is therefore surprising that only in a limited number of cases the architectural works of Vasari appear to be influenced by Michelangelo’s innovation of the classical language of architecture.
This apparent paradox is explained by Vasari himself in a passage of the 1568 edition of Vite, where he
states that Michelangelo’s mastery of arts is unattainable, so an artist should not attempt to imitate his style,
but rather aspire to achieve his own distinctive manner through acquiring the best from a multiplicity of
models. In the second part of the essay, the author shows where the actual models of Vasari’s architectural
language are to be sought: Rome in the early decades of the century on one side, the great Tuscan tradition
on the other.
