Renaissance Art History - books and lectures

All ten volumes of Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Most Eminent Artists are available on archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/livesofpainterss13vasa/page/n7/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/livesofpainterss23vasa/page/n7/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/livesofpainterss33vasa/page/n9/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/livesofpainterss43vasa/page/n9/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/livesofmostemine18505vasa/page/n7/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/livesofmostemine19006vasa
https://archive.org/details/livesofmostemine07vasauoft
https://archive.org/details/livesofmostemine08vasauoft
https://archive.org/details/livesofmostemine09vasauoft
https://archive.org/details/livesofmostemine10vasauoft

You can also find it condensed in two volumes by Penguin or Oxford Classics.

Here is another webpage with links to Vasari, and a short description of the contents
https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/metabook?id=livespainters

For a very long time, Lives of the Artists was the most relevant source regarding the Italian Early Renaissance that was used by the generations of scholars, even though it practically ignored the Renaissance production of the rest of Italy and the rest of Europe. Even today, translated into many languages, this particular book is unsurprisingly considered the most influential guide through the history of Renaissance art since it stands as a prime pioneering example for writing artist biographies and is an instrumental book for surveying the Italian Renaissance and the role it had on Florence and Rome.

Source: https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/giorgio-vasari-lives-of-the-artists

History of Italian Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture
by Frederick Hartt, David G. Wilkins is a must read!
You can explore many more books and recommendations here:
https://www.librarything.com/work/209810/recommendations

There are many Renaissance art history lectures on Youtube, I highly recommend this channel in English and Italian
https://www.youtube.com/@TheGrandTourEurope

It covers history of landmarks in Italy, secrets you might not know about them even if you visited as a tourist, as well as profiles of individual artists.

Last edited by imageryhand on Mon Nov 18, 2024 7:09 pm; edited 2 times in total

Women painters of the Renaissance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwmEacvheVw