Vasari

American  

[vuh-zahr-ee, -sahr-ee, vah-zah-ree] / vəˈzɑr i, -ˈsɑr i, vɑˈzɑ ri /

noun

1. Giorgio 1511–74, Italian painter, architect, and art historian.

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Vasari British  

/ vaˈzaːri, vəˈsɑːrɪ /

noun

1. Giorgio (ˈdʒordʒo). 1511–74, Italian architect, painter, and art historian, noted for his Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Architects, Painters, and Sculptors (1550; 1568), a principal source for the history of Italian Renaissance art

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Example Sentences

The meeting occurred when Michelangelo paid the Venetian a courtesy visit in his rooms at the Belvedere Palace in the company of Giorgio Vasari, the celebrated biographer, and saw “Danaë.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 30, 2026

Vasari, who is regarded as the first art historian, was born in the central region of Tuscany, where he served the Italian banking family and political dynasty the Medici, in Florence.

From Reuters • Jun. 29, 2023

It was instantly hailed as a masterpiece, with Renaissance artist Giorgio Vasari saying the David "surpassed" any statue that had ever existed before.

From BBC • Apr. 28, 2023

Johann Joachim Winckelmann, arguably the most influential art historian since the Renaissance’s own Giorgio Vasari, popularized the notion of whiteness in ancient marble sculptures in 1764 through two volumes on the topic.

From New York Times • Aug. 17, 2022

Neither Condivi nor Vasari, Michelangelo’s biographers who knew him personally mention the master carving this little angel; they mention only the angel carved for the altar in Siena.

From "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E.L. Konigsburg