The Lives of the Artists

By: Giorgio Vasari

Narrated by: Neville Jason

Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's Summary

An Italian Mannerist architect and painter, Giorgio Vasari was acquainted with many of the most famous artists of his day. He is best-known today for his biographies of artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian and Giotto. This recording is read with clarity and authority by Neville Jason.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2008 Naxos Audiobooks (P)2008 Naxos Audiobooks

Excellent if the music was removed.

Would you listen to The Lives of the Artists again? Why?

Yes. As Vasari lived in the time of the Master artists, and gave his view of how they were perceived in his day.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Vasari himself, the way he talks about other artist; 'Leonardo da Vinci was frivolous'; could not complete anything before moving on to something else, or the artist that boiled 50 eggs at a time for eating, whilst he was making his egg mixture for tempera!

Which scene was your favorite?

I haven't finished the book yet. But there is a lot to take in, which makes you want to stop pause and talk about. I will definitely be listening to this book a few more times, start to finish, to learn a lot of past artist names, the way they perceived art and the way they were treated by their own people of their time.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Vasari's View

Any additional comments?

The music between chapters is the real killer of the book. If the music went for 2 - 5 seconds and at a lower decibel, it may be bearable. Instead it last for up to 25 seconds by this stage I’m murderous. Only a Classis organ player would enjoy that part.

Dry presentation, limited perspective of art.

I am an art history buff and a professor of design. This book, while it discusses the lives and careers of many great artists, is incredibly dry and small-minded when it comes to addressing art. There is a turn to all of it that art being about representing nature in lieu of the broad spectrum of human expression. Clearly this was written by someone who knows about history, but does not practice art. I would not recommend this performance or this title, it was difficult to wade through the conservatism and viewpoint of art.

Best version I have found!

I have tried to read this several times but the interpretations were tedious and boring. This version is more accessible and allows Vasari's charm and humor to shine. Loved it.

A Personal History

Where does The Lives of the Artists rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

As an educational read it ranks near the top.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Lives of the Artists?

The very human tendencies of some of the most brilliant artists of all time. Like the fact that Donatello, I believe, eschewed money to the extent that he hung from the ceiling of his studio a basket where he placed all his commissioned earnings. The money was there for anyone working for him to take as needed, for personal or artistic needs.

What about Neville Jason’s performance did you like?

A nice voice that gives a very continental flavor to the story.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It affirmed for me the great glory of the genius of the Renaissance artists from Cimabue to Giotto, to Donatello through to DaVinci and Michelangelo.

Any additional comments?

It was a step back in time. However, comments at the end may have been helpful to identify where many of these masterpieces are today. Vasari was giving a contemporary account. Now the works of art he describes are now housed in some of the most famous museums in the world.

I cannot recommend this more highly...

Giorgio Vasari describes the art, artists, and contemporary events of the Italian Renaissance as only an actual artist of the time could do. The narration is wonderful, the speaker's voice both melodious and interesting. I appreciated the music played between each chapter, as it added to the atmosphere of stories being told about artists by someone who actually knew and worked with them.

really surprised

i knew about the reputation of the book but thought I wouldn't be able to stay awake reading biographies of multiple artists so i thought I'd give the audiobook a shot. I'm glad i did, the narrator was excellent, he moved about the story quickly with different intonations to keep your interest.

The book itself is excellent, it's pretty amazing to hear the biographies of the most famous artists of the Renaissance told by someone who either knew them personally or indirectly. His facts are obviously embellished at times but I enjoyed that part too, I found it funny.

i discovered a lot about artists I had never heard of and others I knew about.

very highly recommended.

Great performance

Performance and translation of this great work are wonderful. Highly recommended to all art lovers.

Tech issues

This is an absolute must read for any art historian. I'd recommend, of course. However, the music between chapters is really, really grating. Also, on your mobile device you can't download the accompanying PDF which is annoying. This is made more annoying by the fact that the chapters aren't named, they're only numbered. So it's hard to find your bearings, and hard to work out which chapter is which if you want to dip back in and re listen to chapters about specific artists.

Excellent content, poor presentation

Leaving aside the arguements about trusting Vasari's grasp of the truth, he's unarguably an entertaining writer, which listening to these highlights brings out. The artists have been pruned drastically, as have the biographies of the famous names that have been kept - the survey of works by each artist is mostly omitted. The narration is excellent and mostly unconfusing. (But the narrator does refer to, for example, what sounds like the art of merchants, which is in fact the Arte or Guild of Merchants.)

As usual each chapter is just labelled as such, with no indication as to which artist it deals with. This makes navigating it a trial and a torment, but this is such a common, and often complained about, shortcoming of Audible that it's becoming truly tedious saying so and reading about it.

Good book, brilliant narrator

highly recommend for those who love and appreciate italian art, nicely done, enjoyed it big time