[ Nov.2014 ] In Arezzo in Italy, we visited the house of Giorgio Vasari who was a painter as well as an architect in the 16th century.
He is also known as an author of “The Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Painters, Sculptors and Architests” which is the key text for Art History.
He worked in Florence, Rome and other big cities, and he was often away from Arezzo, his birth place, but he considered this house as the resting place, which he bought in 1541.
The house was full of paintings.
He started painting in the house in 1542 and it took him 26 years to complete.
Apparently, the paintings in the house shows his own way of thinking, which could be different from other works of his which were commissioned by his patrons.
After being inherited by his family, in 1911 it became a museum and open to public.
By the way, Vasari belongs to a period of European art called Mannerism.
This is the origin of the word, mannerism, which means routine or stale.
I wonder how the meaning of the word changed.
Apparetnly the paintings of Vasari was appriciated more during his life time than after his death.
Is it something to do with this word?
