Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the Artists, first published in 1550 and expanded in 1568, is the founding text of art history — a series of biographical essays on Italian painters, sculptors, and architects from Cimabue to Michelangelo. Volume 3 covers the generation of Filarete, Simone, and Andrea Mantegna, among others, tracing the stylistic evolution from Gothic manners toward the full Renaissance through anecdote, technical observation, and critical judgement.
Vasari’s vivid, gossipy prose remains as readable as it is historically indispensable. This volume is essential for anyone studying the Italian Renaissance or the history of Western art.