ABSTRACT
Italian Renaissance refers to the period from roughly 1300 to around the middle of the sixteenth century. Florence had the most dynamic economy in fourteenth-century Italy, although it suffered serious reverses at various times. Humanism is a complex concept that embraces different facets of Renaissance culture. Giorgio Vasari was a Mannerist painter and architect but is best known for his biographies of Renaissance artists—The Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, published in two editions, in 1550 and 1568. Giovanni Boccaccio elaborated his view of Giotto's genius with a metaphor that would resonate throughout the Renaissance and be applied to other great artists. The humanist conviction that Giotto had singlehandedly restored painting to the light of day took on mythic proportions. This is evident in the Renaissance revival of the ancient Greek and Roman tradition of constructing anecdotes about artists.
