Main entry:

Vasari, Giorgio, 1511-1574.

Title & Author:

Vasari on technique : being the introduction to the three arts of design, architecture, sculpture and painting, prefixed to the Lives of the most excellent painters, sculptors, and architects / by Giorgio Vasari ; now for the first time translated into English by Louisa S. Maclehose ; edited, with introduction & notes by G. Baldwin Brown.

Publication:

New York : Dover Publications, 1960.

Description:

xxiv, 328 pages : illustrations, portraits, map ; 21 cm

Series:

Dover books on art, aesthetics, art history, art collections

Notes:
"An unabridged and unaltered republication of the work first published by J.M. Dent & Company in 1907, except that the frontispiece, plate XII, which appeared in color in the original edition, are here reproduced in black and white."
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introductory essay -- Of architecture -- On the different kinds of stone which are used by architects for ornamental details, and in sculpture for statues; that is, of porphyry, serpentine, cipollaccio, breccia, granites, paragon or test-stone, transparent marbles, white marbles and veined marbles, Cipollini, Saligni, Campanini, travertine, slate, Peperigno, ischia stone, Pietra Serena and Pietra forte -- The description of squared ashlar-work (lavoro di quadro) and of carved ashlar-work (lavoro di quadro intagliato) -- Concerning the five orders of architecture, rustic, Doric, ionic, Corinthian, composite, and also German work -- On forming vaults in concrete, to be impressed with enrichment: when the centerings are to be removed, and how to mix the plaster -- How rustic fountains are made with stalactites and incrustations from water, and how cockle shells and conglomerations of vitrified stone are built into the stucco -- On the manner of making pavements of tesselated work -- How one is to recognize if a building have good proportions, and of what members it should generally be composed -- Notes on 'introduction' to architecture -- Porphyry and porphyry quarries -- The Sassi, Della Valle, and other collections of antiques of the early part of the sixteenth century -- The porphyry tazza of the Sala Rotonda of the Vatican -- Francesco del Tadda, and the revival of sculpture in porphyry -- The cortile of the belvedere in the Vatican, in the sixteenth century -- Paragon (touchstone) and other stones associated with it by Vasari -- Tuscan marble quarries -- The round temple on the Piazza S. Luigi dei Francesi, and 'Maestro Gian' -- Rusticated masonry -- Vasari's opinion on mediaeval architecture -- Egg-shell mosaic -- Ideal architecture; an ideal palace -- Of sculpture -- What sculpture is; how good works of sculpture are made, and what qualities they must possess to be esteemed perfect -- Of the manner of making models in wax and in clay; how they are draped, and how they are afterwards enlarged in proportion in the marble; how marbles are worked with the point and the toothed tool, and are rubbed with pumice stone and polished till they are perfect -- Of low and half reliefs, the difficulty of making them and how to bring them to perfection -- How models for large and small bronze figures are made, with the moulds for casting them and their armatures of iron; and how they are cast in metal and in three shorts of bronze; and how after they are cast they are chased and refined; and how, if they lack pieces that did not come out in the cast, these are grafted and joined in the same bronze -- Concerning steel dies for making medals of bronze or other metals and how the latter are formed from these metals and from oriental stones and cameos -- How works in white stucco are executed, and of the manner of preparing the wall underneath for them, and how they work is carried out -- How figures in wood are executed and of what sort of wood is best for the purpose -- Notes on 'introduction' to sculpture -- The nature of sculpture -- Sculpture treated for position -- Waxen effigies and medallions -- Proportionate enlargement -- The use of full-sized models -- Italian and Greek reliefs -- The processes of the bronze founder -- Of painting -- What design is, and how good pictures are made and known, and concerning the invention of compositions -- Of sketches, drawings, cartoons, and schemes of perspective; how they are made, and to what use they are put by the painters -- Of the foreshortening of figures looked at from beneath, and those on the level -- How colours in oil painting, in fresco, or in tempera should be blended: and how the flesh, the draperies and all that is depicted come to be harmonized in the work in such a manner that the figures do not appear cut up, and stand out well and forcibly and show the work to be clear and comprehensible -- Of painting on the wall, how it is done, and why it is called working in fresco -- Of painting in tempera, or with egg, on panel or canvas, and how it is employed on the wall which is dry -- Of painting in oil on panel or on canvas -- Of painting in oil on a wall which is dry -- Of painting in oil on canvas -- Of painting in oil on stone, and what stones are good for the purpose -- Of painting on the wall in monochrome with various earths: how objects in bronze are imitated: and of groups for triumphal arches or festal structures, done with powdered earths mixed with size, which process is called gouache and tempera -- Of the sgraffiti for house decoration which withstand water; that which is used in their production; and how grotesques are worked on the wall -- How grotesques are worked on the stucco -- Of the manner of applying gold on a bolus, or with a mordant, and other methods -- Of glass mosaic and how it is recognized as good and praiseworthy -- Concerning the compositions and figures made in inlaid work on pavements in imitation of objects in monochrome -- Of mosaic in wood, that is, of tarsia; and of the compositions that are made in tinted woods, fitted together after the manner of a picture -- On painting glass windows and how they are put together with leads and supported with irons so as not to interfere with the view of the figures -- Of niello, and how by this process we have copper prints; and how silver is engraved to make enamels over bas-relief, and in like manner how gold and silver plate is chased -- Of tausia, that is, work called damascening -- Of wood engraving and the method of executing it and concerning its first inventor: how sheets which appear to be drawn by hand and exhibit lights and half-tones and shades, are produced with three blocks of wood -- Notes on 'introduction' to painting -- Fresco painting -- Tempera painting -- Oil painting -- Enriched façades -- Stucco 'grotesques' -- Tarsia work, or wood inlays -- The stained glass window -- Vasari's description of enamel work.

ISBN:

048620717X (paperback)
9780486207179 (paperback)

Subject:

Vasari, Giorgio 1511-1574
Vasari, Giorgio, 1511-1574 Aesthetics.
Architecture Early works to 1800.
Sculpture Early works to 1800.
Painting Early works to 1800.
Art Technique.
Architecture Ouvrages avant 1800.
Sculpture Ouvrages avant 1800.
Peinture Ouvrages avant 1800.
Sculpture première Ouvrages avant 1800.
20.03 methods and techniques of the art sciences.
Architecture
Painting
Sculpture
Visual arts.
Technics.
Art, Italian.

Form/genre:

Early works to 1800.
Early works

Added entries:

Maclehose, Louisa S., translator.
Brown, G. Baldwin (Gerard Baldwin), 1849-1932, editor.
Dover books on art, aesthetics, art history, art collections.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 43612
Call No.: 2770; ID:89-B3326
Status: Available