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30 July 2011 marked the fifth centenary of Giorgio Vasari’s birth (cf. http://www.arthistoricum.net/themen/themenportale/renaissance/lektion-1/2-giorgio-vasari/). As so often, this artist’s anniversary is being celebrated worldwide. In Tuscany it has unleashed a tidal wave of exhibitions, lectures, conferences, and other events. This ‚blog’ attempts a  recapitulation of the ANNO VASARI IN TUSCANY, affording a guide to the events. Some are still continuing or have yet to take place. In order to offer a convenient overview, the events are first listed in a short form. Subsequently they are described in more detail, but, in light of the international interest in them, only in English.

Since 1974, the fourth centenary of Vasari’s death, there has been an enormous expansion in knowledge about Vasari’s life, art, and writings. However fragile and fallible many interpretations of Vasari may seem, this dramatic increase in concrete information is undeniable. In the 1970s, it was still difficult to form a clear picture of Vasari as an artist on the basis of published images. That has changed completely, owing to the many excellent illustrations of his works published subsequently, many, in fact, in 2011, and with the advent of high quality digital images diffused through the Internet (cf. http://blog.arthistoricum.net/beitrag/2011/06/27/zeichnungen-online-und-die-datenbank-des-british-museums-1/; http://blog.arthistoricum.net/beitrag/2011/04/15/artstor/). Now Vasari’s many merits as a painter, a draughtsman, and an architect can be seen with our own eyes, and they often contradict the rather dismal estimates of his art offered by his apologists, who, indeed, have sometimes been Vasari’s most damning detractors.

The clear ‚winner’ of the Anno Vasari is Claudia Conforti. Not only did she organize the Vasari exhibition at the Uffizi (infra), but she has appeared at very many of the Vasari events, from the beginning to the end.

A few manifestations held geographically outside of Tuscany, but with a clear connection with Tuscan institutions, are treated here. A full bilancio of the Vasari year has yet to be drawn.

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Der 30. Juli 2011 markierte die fünfte Hundertjahrfeier der Geburt Giorgio Vasaris (vgl. http://www.arthistoricum.net/themen/themenportale/renaissance/lektion-1/2-giorgio-vasari/ ). Wie so oft wird dieses Künstlerjubiläum weltweit gefeiert. In der Toskana hat es eine Welle von Ausstellungen, Vorträgen, Tagungen und anderen Veranstaltungen ausgelöst.

Dieser Webblog versucht, eine kurze Rekapitulation des ANNO VASARI IN DER TOSKANA und dabei einen Führer zu den Veranstaltungen anzubieten. Einige laufen noch und andere werden noch stattfinden. Um einen einfachen Überblick über die Ereignisse zu geben, werden sie zunächst in Kurzform aufgeführt. Anschließend werden sie näher beschrieben, in Hinblick auf das internationale Interesse allerdings nur in englischer Sprache.

Seit dem Jahr 1974 (dem vierten Jubiläum des Todes von Vasari) hat es eine enorme Expansion des Wissens über Vasari gegeben – über sein Leben, seine Kunst, sein Schreiben. So fragil und fehlbar viele Interpretationen von Vasari noch erscheinen mögen, ist dieser dramatische Zuwachs von konkreten Informationen nicht zu leugnen. In den 1970er Jahren war es noch sehr schwierig, ein klares Bild von Vasari als Künstler an Hand veröffentlichter Bilder auszumachen. Aufgrund der vielen später veröffentlichten ausgezeichneten Abbildungen seiner Werke, viele in der Tat erst im Jahre 2011, und dem Erscheinen von qualitativ hochwertigen digitalen Bildern, die über das Internet zugänglich sind (http://blog.arthistoricum.net/beitrag/2011/06/27/zeichnungen-online-und-die-datenbank-des-british-museums-1/; http://blog.arthistoricum.net/beitrag/2011/04/15/artstor/), hat sich die Lage komplett verändert. Jetzt können die vielen Verdienste Vasaris als Maler, Zeichner und Architekt mit eigenen Augen gesehen werden, und diese widersprechen sehr oft den eher düsteren Einschätzungen seiner Kunst, die wir von seinen Apologeten öfters bekommen – Apologeten, die in der Tat manchmal Vasaris meist vernichtende Kritiker sind.

Der klare ‚Gewinner’ des Anno Vasari ist Claudia Conforti. Sie hat nicht nur die große Ausstellung in den Uffizien gestaltet, sie ist auch bei den meisten Vasari-Veranstaltungen erschienen – vom Anfang bis zum Ende.

Ein paar Veranstaltungen, die geographisch außerhalb der Toskana stattgefunden haben (aber in klarem Zusammenhang mit toskanischen Institutionen), werden hier auch behandelt. Eine vollständige Bilanz des Vasari-Jahres bleibt noch aus.

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EXHIBITIONS 

1. Vasari, gli Uffizi e il Duca, Firenze, Galleria degli Uffizi, 14 June - 30 October 2011 (extended to 8 January 2012)

2. Omaggio a Vasari, Firenze, Ente Cassa di Risparmio, 2 November - 30 November 2011 

3. New Opening: Casa Vasari, Firenze, Borgo Santa Croce 8 

4. Giorgio Vasari: Disegnatore e Pittore – Istudio, diligenza et amorevole fatica, Arezzo, Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, 3 September - 11 December 2011 

5. Giorgio Vasari: Santo è bello, Arezzo, Palazzo Vescovile, 20 April - 30 December 2011 (extension likely)

6. Il Primato die toscani nelle ‚vite’ del Vasari, Arezzo, Sottochiesa della Basilica di San Francesco, 3 September - 9 January 2012

7. Arezzo, Palazzo Comunale, Restoration exhibition: ‚pala’ by Vasari with the Assunzione della Vergine, until 15 December 2011

8. Das Jahrhundert Vasaris: Florentiner Zeichner des Cinquecento, Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin in cooperation with the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, 17 May - 21 August 2011

LECTURES SERIES

9. I Mondi del Vasari: Accademia, Lingua, Religione, Storia, Teatro, organized by the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz and the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, Eight lectures, Firenze, Accademia del Disegno, via Orsanmichele 4, 13 September - 13 December 2011

10. Giorgio Vasari nel V centenario della nascita, Lectures, Firenze, Fondazione Salvatore Romano, Piazza Santo Spirito, 30 April - 14 May 2011

11. Un invito a leggere Vasari, Sixteen lectures, Firenze, Museo Nazionale del Bargello; Pisa, Scuola Normale Superiore; Arezzo, Palazzo della Provincia, 1 March - 13 May 2011

12. Giorgio Vasari zum 500. Geburtstag, Vortragsreihe (Verein zur Förderung des Kunsthistorischen Instituts in Florenz), München, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, 16 February - 22 June 2011

CONFERENCES

 13. Le Vite del Vasari: Genesi, topoi, ricezione, Atti del Covegno, 13 - 17 February 2008, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz; publication: 2010.

14. Le pagine dell’arte: Vasari e le Vite de’ più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani, Firenze, Palazzo Vecchio, 24 November 2010

15. Gli Uffizi: Giorgio Vasari architetto di stato, Tokyo, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, 27 September 2011

16. The Birth of the Museum: Giorgio Vasari, Firenze, Chiesa di San Jacopo in Campo Corbolini, 14 - 15 October 2011

17. Giorgio Vasari tra capitale medicea e città del dominio, Pistoia, Palazzo Vescovile, 14 October 2011

18. Giorgio Vasari architetto, Arezzo, Teatro Pietro Aretino, 18 November 2011

19. <cite>Vasari/500</CITE><cite>, Harvard University, Department</CITE> of the History of Art and Architecture, in collaboration with Villa I Tatti (Firenze), and others, 27 - 29 <cite>October 2011</CITE>

20. In conclusion there is a brief report about the Anno Ammannati (Bartolomeo Ammannati, 1511 - 1592).

VASARI EXHIBITIONS

1. Vasari, gli Uffizi e il Duca, ed. Claudia Conforti, with the collaboration of Francesca Funis, Francesca de Luca, and Antonio Godoli

Firenze: Galleria degli Uffizi, 14 June - 30 October 2011 (extended to 8 January 2012)

Catalogue: ed. Claudia Conforti, Firenze: Giunti, 2011, 423 pp.

Review: Erika Langmuir, „Giorgio Vasari, Florence“, in: Burlington Magazine, vol. 153, October 2011, pp. 699-701: The reviewer writes that the exhibition is "boldly didactic", and that it illustrates Vasari’s entire career, as well as the politics of his primary patron, Cosimo I de’ Medici, Cosimo’s court and his government, Cosimo’s urban transformation of Florence, and the conception and building history of the administrative magistracies that became today’s Uffizi. Langmuir concludes, "Perhaps more importantly, the exhibition sets a new standard for how architectural history is discussed and displayed.“

The exhibition was perhaps more interesting and successful as an architectural exhibition than was the catalogue as a scholarly work. An empty room in the Uffizi building constituted one of the exhibits („La stanza vuota“: „Tra le ragioni che hanno suggerito questo inconsueto ‚oggetto’ di esposizione, spicca la fortunata circonstanza di allestire una mostra all’interno del manufatto la cui genesi e costruzione sono il tema centrale della mostra stessa“), with a catalogue entry, no. x, but no illustration, – „reconstructing the proportions and materials of a typical inner space as conceived by Vasari and the Duke“ (Langmuir).

With few exceptions the numerous catalogue essays (pp. 25-28) are quite brief, and thus the catalogue entries are left to carry the messages of exhibition. They are mostly one page long, and sometimes two, plus illustrations. Many are not so much addressed to the exhibition itself, as cast abstractly, often written as general scholarly discussions of the objects, some with an incomplete command of the literature. An example is cat no. iv.1 (Testata of the Uffizi), which fails to note the recent identification of the „ciclopico stemma mediceo“ as a grandducal coat-of-arms and as new work by Giambolgna replacing the earlier ‚stemma’ by Vincenzo Danti. This identification has been followed recently by Matteo Burioni, who writes, „Die Veränderung des Wappens quittiert Lessmann mit einem Satz. ... Kaum darüber hinaus geht Charles Davis; siehe Davis/Paolozzi Strozzi, 2008, S. 165-203, insbesondere S. 187f. (http://www.kunstgeschichte.uni-muenchen.de/personen/wiss_ma/burioni/burioni_nullpunkt.pdf

http://www.kunstgeschichte.uni-muenchen.de/personen/wiss_ma/burioni/burioni_nullpunkt.pdf).

This change in the public face of the Uffizi marks, however, a most important ideological revision of the principal façade of the cortile of the Uffizi after 1569, probably in the early 1580s, a point which escapes Burioni and also the compilers of the present catalogue. It is not always clear why the works exhibited were included in this exhibition. The catalogue does display, however, a coming to terms with the new realities of scholarship, with its increase in citations of electronic publications found in the Internet. If many of the works were familiar to specialists of Florentine art, some are not so often seen (cf. cat. nos. ii.1, ii.2, ii.3, ii.15, iii.4: Lastricati ?, iii.5, iii.10, iv.2, vi.7, xi, 4, xv.2, xv.3, xv.7, xv.10, xv.15, xv.21). The somewhat tangential, nearly full-scale reconstruction Vasari’s frescoed Sala del Camino in his Arezzo house in one of the later rooms of this large exhibition was interesting for the present writer (Section xiii). Here could be seen an ancient marble Venus now in the Uffizi (cat. no. xiii.2) for which a stucco Venus in the Sala del Camino by Ammannati served as a restoration model. Unfortunately the new findings relating to these works contained in the nearly simultaneous Ammannati exhibition at the Bargello did not find their way into the Uffizi exhibition catalogue. Ammannati’s bronze Mars (Uffizi) was shown at the Uffizi (cat. no. ii.19), although it had only marginal relevance to the exhibition, and it was sadly missing at the Bargello’s monographic exhibition devoted to Ammannati (where it received a catalogue entry: no. 12). 

(Official site: http://www.unannoadarte.it/presentazione6.html ; YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-GtAbq5kTo ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSMqAzVJqEQ

Rreviews: http://berkshirereview.net/2011/10/vasari-uffizi/ ; http://www3.lastampa.it/arte/sezioni/mostra-della-settimana/articolo/lstp/427365/ ; http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/arts/14iht-vasari14.html?pagewanted=all)

2. Omaggio a Vasari, 1511-1574

Firenze, Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze (via Maurizio Bufalini 6), 13 October - 30 November 2011. New opening hours: Monday-Friday: 10-13, 15-19; Saturday -Sunday: 15-19. Free entrance.

Six paintings by Vasari belonging to the Foundation of the Cassa di Risparmio (four octagonal paintings with allegorical figures and two vertical panels with male saints) are displayed in the Sala dell’Abbondanza. There is also information about the restorations in the Casa Vasari (Firenze), supported by the Cassa di Risparmio. In the Sala delle Colonne can be followed ‚in diretta’ the restoration (directed by Laura Caria and Daniele Rapino) of the large ‚pala’ by Vasari, which belongs in the cappella Botti in the Basilica of the Carmine (Firenze), representing the Crocifissione di Cristo con Maria e i Santi Giovanni Evangelista, Maria Maddalena e Angeli (1560; until March 2012).

Catalogue: Omaggio a Vasari, 1511-1574: Dipinti di Giorgio Vasari dalla collezione dell’Ente Cassa di Risparmio, Firenze (ECRF Spazio Mostre) 2011, 32 pp., 14 colour plates. The four octagons by Vasari, probably from the Florentine Casa Vasari (1569-1572), appear to be autograph and the narrow panels with San Domenico and San Donato are clearly autograph and of high quality. All are paintings that Vasari made for himself.

Images: http://firenze.repubblica.it/cronaca/2011/10/13/foto/omaggio_a_vasari-23184538/1/ ; http://multimedia.quotidiano.net/?tipo=photo&media=27701

News: http://www.libero-news.it/news/856194/Mostre-Firenze-nuovi-orari-per-l-esposizione-del-Vasari.html