When 1,000 Words Won't Do

As you might gather from the post below, I've been reading Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists. Unfortunately, the book is all about artworks but has no pictures. I'm familiar with some, but not all, of the many works cited, and even when I have a general memory, I'd often like to see a detailed photo while reading Vasari's commentary. If ever there were a text made for the Web, this is it. I haven't found a site that integrates text and photos (or links), but this one certainly provides a useful supplement to the book's footnotes.

Here's another product of Vasari's imagination, a detail from the Last Judgment he painted for the ceiling of the Duomo in Florence. The image, which was designed to be seen from much farther below, is somewhat distorted by the curve of the dome. When we were up there looking at the ceiling last summer, another American visitor said, "So, does it make you a believer?" Not exactly.

Posted by Virginia Postrel on June 26, 2007