The Libro de' Disegni (Italian for ''Book of Drawings'') was a collection of drawings gathered, sorted and grouped by Giorgio Vasari whilst writing his ''

Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'' ( it, Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori), often simply known as ''The Lives'' ( it, Le Vite), is a series of artist biographies written by 16th-ce ...

''. By the time of his death in 1574 it is thought to have contained around 526 drawings, of which 162 are now in the Louvre and 83 in the

Nationalmuseum, Stockholm Nationalmuseum (or National Museum of Fine Arts) is the national gallery of Sweden, located on the peninsula Blasieholmen in central Stockholm. The museum's operations stretches far beyond the borders of Blasieholmen, the nationalmuseum manage ...

. There are also drawings from the ''Libro'' in the prints and drawings departments of the Uffizi, the British Museum, the Albertina, the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

and other institutions.

Origins and dispersal

Some art historians believe they were gathered to illustrate Vasari's ''Lives'' directly, as a visual index of the artists' works, whilst others believe it was a separate document in its own right. In his preface to the ''Lives'', Vasari described his reasons for writing: No text reveals why Vasari compiled his collection of drawings, but it was probably to illustrate the styles of the different artists he wrote about and to show how he had divided them "into three parts, or rather let us call them periods, between the rebirth of the arts and our own time - each of these is distinguished from the others by manifest differences". The earliest drawing in the collection was by Cimabue and the latest dated to Vasari's own time. In the 1550 and 1568 editions of the ''Lives'' Vasari insisted on drawings as documents which allowed the viewer to perceive the ''maniera'' of the great masters of painting and mentioned when he owned one or two drawings by a particular artist, such as at the end of his life of

Filippo Lippi Filippo Lippi ( – 8 October 1469), also known as Lippo Lippi, was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento (15th century) and a Carmelite Priest. Biography Lippi was born in Florence in 1406 to Tommaso, a butcher, and his wife. He was orp ...

: ("Fra Filippo drew very well, as one can see in my own ''Libro'' of the most famous painters, in the preparatory drawings for the altarpiece at Santo Spirito and the frescoes in the Prato chapel.") and in his life of Sandro Botticelli ("Sandro's drawings were of a totally unique excellence; and, after his death, more and more artists have been keen to have some of his drawings; and I myself, in my collection, have a few which were done with great care and judgement"). Giorgio Vasari was one of the founders of the

Accademia delle Arti del Disegno The Accademia delle Arti del Disegno ("Academy of the Arts of Drawing") is an academy of artists in Florence, Italy. Founded as Accademia e Compagnia delle Arti del Disegno ("Academy and Company of the Arts of Drawing") on 13 January 1563 by ...

set up in Florence by

Cosimo I of Tuscany Cosimo I de' Medici (12 June 1519 – 21 April 1574) was the second Duke of Florence from 1537 until 1569, when he became the first Grand Duke of Tuscany, a title he held until his death. Life Rise to power Cosimo was born in Florence on 12 ...

in 1563. He and the other founders wished to use this academy to promote artists above the status of artisans. He was also a passionate collector of drawings and in his ''Libro'' he set them in his own paper frames and gathered drawings by one or more painters on a single sheet. In 1528 he received a collection of Lorenzo Ghiberti's drawings, as one of Ghiberti's descendants. After Vasari's death, the sheets of the ''Libro'' were initially bought in 1574 by the Florentine collector

Niccolò Gaddi Niccolò Gaddi (1499–1552) was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal. Biography Niccolò Gaddi was born in Florence in 1499, the son of Taddeo Gaddi and Antonia Altoviti. He was a direct descendant of medieval painter Taddeo Gaddi. He was the ...

(1537-1591). They were then sold by Gaddi's heirs before 18 May 1638, the date of death of Lorenzo Sabbatini, who had been put in charge of the ''Libro''. They were then dispersed among the Medici,

Arundel Arundel ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Arun District of the South Downs, West Sussex, England. The much-conserved town has a medieval castle and Roman Catholic cathedral. Arundel has a museum and comes second behind much large ...

, Quesnel, Crozat and Mariette collections during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Collections

European collections

Albertina

British Museum

Ecole des Beaux Arts

Louvre

The first drawings from the ''Libro de' Disegni'' to enter the French national collection were bought by Everhard Jabach, probably when the Arundel collections were sold in 1646 and 1654 after his and his widow's deaths. They then passed from Jabach into Louis XIV's drawings collection in 1671. Further sheets from the ''Libro'' were added when the French royal collection bought part of the collection of

Mariette Mariette may signify: ;Family name: * Auguste Mariette (1821–1881), pioneering Egyptologist. *Pierre-Jean Mariette (1694–1774), connoisseur and chronicler of artistic life in Paris ;Given name: *Mariette Bosch (died 2001), South African murder ...

in 1755 and when Saint-Morys's collection was seized by the revolutionary government in 1793. These later additions may have originated in the sale of the Crozat collection, for which a catalogue survives. Part of the Mariette collection was sold to the royal collection in 1775. Other pages entered the French national collection from émigré goods seized by the revolutionary government and via gift and purchase.

Munich

Stockholm

The museum acquired 83 drawings from the ''Libro'' as part of the

Pierre Crozat Pierre Crozat (1665–1740) was a French financier, art patron and collector at the center of a broad circle of ''cognoscenti''; he was the brother of Antoine Crozat. Biography The brothers Crozat were born in Toulouse, France, the sons of a we ...

and Carl Gustaf Tessin collections. They include

Domenico Ghirlandaio Domenico di Tommaso Curradi di Doffo Bigordi (, , ; 2 June 1448 – 11 January 1494), professionally known as Domenico Ghirlandaio, also spelled as Ghirlandajo, was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Florence. Ghirlandaio was part of ...

's '' Head of an Old Man'', a study for his 1490 painting ''

An Old Man and his Grandson ''An Old Man and his Grandson'' ( it, Ritratto di vecchio con nipote) is a ca. 1490 tempera painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Domenico Ghirlandaio. One of Ghirlandaio's best-known works, it is considered notable for its emotional poigna ...

'', now in the Louvre.

Uffizi

US collections

Metropolitan

National Gallery of Art

Yale

Notes

References

Bibliography

* Otto Kurz, ''Giorgio Vasari's Libro de'Disegni'', Old Masters Drawings, 1937 * Arthur Ewart Popham, ''Drawings from the collection of Giorgio Vasari'', , British Museum Quarterly, 1936 * Per Bjurstrom, ''Italian Drawings from the Collection of Giorgio Vasari'', National Museum, Stockholm, 2001 * Andrew Morrogh, ''Vasari's Libro de' Disegni and Niccolò Gaddi's Collection of Drawings: The Work of Gaddi's "Chief Framer"'', conference paper at the RSA Annual Meeting, New York, NY, Hilton New York, 2014 * Stéfania Caliandro, ''Le Libro de' Disegni de Giorgio Vasari: un métatexte visuel'', Presses universitaires de l'université de Limoges, 1999
''Sample''
* Giorgio Vasari, ''Les vies des meilleurs peintres, sculpteurs et architectes'', édition commentée sous la direction d' André Chastel, ''Du texte à l'image. Dessins du "Libro"'', Berger-Levrault, Paris, 1989 * Catherine Monbeig-Goguel, ''Giorgio Vasari : Dessinateur et collectionneur, XXXVIe exposition du Cabinet des dessins du musée du Louvre'', Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris, 1965 * Catherine Monbeig Goguel, ''Dessins italiens au musée du Louvre, deuxième moitié du XVIe siècle (artistes nés après 1500 et morts avant 1580). Vasari et son temps'', Éditions des Musées nationaux, Paris, 1972 , présentation du livre : , École pratique des hautes études. 4e, Sciences historiques et philologiques, année 197
(''read online'')
* Catherine Monbeig Goguel, ''Le dessin encadré'', , Revue de l'Art, année 1987, No. 7
(''online'')
* Alphonse Wyatt, ''Le Libro dei Disegni de Vasari'', , Gazette des beaux-arts, octobre-novembre-décembre 1859
(''online'')
* Licia Ragghianti Collobi, ''Il Libro de' Disegni del Vasari'', Vallecchi, Florence, 1996

External links

* National Gallery of Art

* Musée du Louvre - Département des Arts graphiques
Exposition : ''Giorgio Vasari : dessinateur et collectionneur. XXXVIe exposition du Cabinet des Dessins'' (1965)
* Base Joconde
Les 162 dessins de la collection de Vasari du cabinet des dessins
{{DEFAULTSORT:Libro de' Disegni Renaissance art Italian Renaissance Italian culture-related lists Arts-related lists Collections of the National Gallery of Art Drawings of the Louvre Collections of the Nationalmuseum Stockholm Collections of the Uffizi Collections of the Albertina, Vienna Prints and drawings in the British Museum Giorgio Vasari