House of Giorgio Vasari
The House of Giorgio Vasari was previously the residence of a famous artist, art critic and architect, and is now a landmark at Borgo Santa Croce 8 in Florence. The hall preserves a valuable cycle of frescoes, conceived and created by Vasari with the help of his students. Without him it is almost impossible to imagine the history of Italian art, his works are so fundamental.
History of the House of Giorgio Vasari
The artist was born in Arezzo in 1511 and died in Florence in 1574, and plays an important role in Dan Brown's Inferno. Vasari was a brilliant polymath who had many areas of interest, including writing, drawing and planning. Thanks to his fame and talent, Vasari was recognized as one of the most important Medici court artists.
During the first part of his creative career, he devoted himself to painting. In addition to his career as an artist, Vasari achieved great success as an architect. He had a good reputation, and during his lifetime he managed to accumulate a fortune. In 1547, he built himself a beautiful house in Arezzo (now a museum in his honor) and decorated its walls and vaults with paintings. He was elected to the municipal council or a priori of his native city and finally rose to the highest office of gonfaloniere. In addition, the palace where Vasari used to live in Florence is now a museum located in Borgo Santa Croce.
Features of the House of Giorgio Vasari
The house was the residence of the great Florentine artist, architect and art historian, and the building houses a cycle of frescoes in the hall that he designed and built.
Starting in 1911, the House of Giorgio Vasari became the property of the state, which decided to transform it into the Vasari Museum and Archive. In addition to the works that he undertook to create and collect, the museum houses as an archive the correspondence that the artist conducted with outstanding personalities of his generation. Among them: Michelangelo, Cosimo I de' Medici and Pope Pius V.
There are still ongoing disputes between the state and the owners who bought Giorgio Vasari's House many years ago, the entire complex can be visited on three floors with doors open to the most intimate rooms of the Arezzo artist. From the Chamber of Abraham with the Salon del Camino, beautifully decorated by the artist and his students, to the apartment with the Chamber of Fame and Arts to the Chamber of Muses.
The tour to reveal the secrets of the artist in the House of Giorgio Vasari ends with a visit to the courtyard, which he personally took care of in his moments of relaxation. Very small but beautiful halls with frescoed ceilings, especially notable are the hall depicting art (music, sculpture, painting and architecture) and the main hall with a fireplace. In the latter, the central image is an allegory of virtue, luck and envy (virtù, fortuna e invidia). On the walls there is fire (from the fireplace side) with a burning city, and abundance on the opposite side from the flooded city.
