Page:Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters.djvu/224

 VASARI— VECCHL 198 occasionally conspicuous for a certain dignity of character. Vasari's chief claim on posterity con- sists in his celebrated biographical series of the lives of the most dis- tinguished painters, sculptors, and architects, from the period of Gimabue down to his own time, extending over four centuries — Le Vite de* piu Eccel- lenti JPittori, ScuUori, e Architetti, pub- lished by Yasari himself in 1550, and again, with considerable alterations, in 1568. There have been many editions since, all of which are surpassed by the work now in course of publication by a society of "Amateurs," at Flo- rence, 12mo, 1846-54, seq. There is also an admirable German translation by Schom and Forster, Stuttgart, 1832- 49. Without this veiy important work, our knowledge of the different masters, and of the. development of the Schools of Italy, would have been most inade- quate and fragmentary ; added to this, the beauty and simplicity of the style, the Uveliiaess of the narrative, both powerful and eloquent, the graphic anecdotes of men and manners inter- spersed throughout the lives, invest the work with an interest which never flags. Yasari describes it as originating in a suggestion by Paolo Giovio ; and he undertook it at the request of the Cardinal Famese. It is a vast compi- lation and a work of great labour, whe- ther the production of one or more persons, and remains even now unri- vs^ed by any work of its kind, notwith- standing its numerous inaccuracies, and his partiality for the Florentines. Works. Bome, the Sala Begia in the Yatican, representations of the Triumphs of the Church: San Gio- vanni Decollate, the Martyrdom of St. John : Borghese Gallery, Lucretia and Leda. Florence, the Badia, Assump- tion of the Yirgin : Santa Croce, the Crucifixion, and others : cathedral, cupola : Santa Maria NoveUa, the Be- surrection: Academy, several sub- jects: Fitti and Uffizj Galleries, ex- amples. Pisa, San Stefano ai Caval- lien, works. Bologna, in the refectory of San Michele in Bosco, three sacred subjects: Academy, Madonna and Saints : Arezzo, and Camaldoli, Yal di Chiana, several works. Berlin Gallery, a Portrait of Cosimo I., and Peter and John blessing four kneeling Converts. Louvre, the Salutation, and three other sacred subjects. YASILACCHI, Antonio, called L'AxiENSE DA MiLO, h. 1556, d, 1629. Yenetian School. He was a Greek by birth, of Milo, but studied at Yenice for a short time under Paul Yeronese : the abilities that he displayed excited the jealousy of his instructor, who is said to have dismissed him from his studio, recommending him to hmit himself to cabinet pieces. Yasilacchi followed a very different course, he devoted him- self to large pictures in Paolo's manner, but he subsequently became the imi- tator of Tintoretto, and he transplanted the style of that master to Perugia, where he executed some extensive works in the church of San Pietro. He was a good imitator of Paul Ye- ronese, and his works are numerous at Yenice, but bold, careless, and man- nered. {Ridolfiy Zanetti.) YECCHI, Giovanni de', 6. at Borgo San Sepolcro, 1536, d, 1614. Boman School. He studied first under Baf- faello del CoUe, and afterwards under Taddeo Zucchero. He assisted the latter, or painted in competition with him, in the decorations of the Famese Yilla at Caprarola. Several of his pic- tuies are in the churches at Bome ; in Sta. Maria d' Ara Cell he painted some subjects from the life of St. Jerome ; and in the cupola of the Gesvi, he re- presented in fresco the four doctors of the church, Gregory, Ambrose, Jerome,.