On the trail of Giorgio Vasari in Arezzo

Vasari also worked as an architect, initially inspired by Michelangelo. He used the Tuscan stone a lot, but also marble, pietre dure and inlays, revisiting the ancient style with functionally new inventions. In Arezzo, he created a support for the Cathedral’s organ, the Bell-gable of Palazzo della Fraternità dei Laici in Piazza Grande, he also followed, in 1554, the restructuring project for the presbytery of the Cathedral and from 1565 to 1573 he renovated the Abbey of Saints Flora and Lucilla.

Vasari’s last great work in his hometown were the Loggias, showing in all their majesty in Piazza Grande. He received the commission from the Rectors of Fraternita and the Citizens’ General Council in 1570 and the work was finished in 1593. At Vasari House Museum is preserved a wooden model of two spans, proposed by the artist in 1572.

In the Arezzo area, the “Vasari stops” not to be missed are in Cortona, where Vasari worked at the building site of Santa Maria Nuova and on the renovation project of Santa Maria delle Querce. The Oratorio del Gesù - where the Diocesan Museum is located - was frescoed in 1555 by Cristofano Gheradi, known as Il Doceno, after a design by Giorgio Vasari, with scenes from the Old and New Testaments.

In the hamlet of Pozzo della Chiana (Foiano della Chiana) there is the small octagonal Temple of Santo Stefano della Vittoria, attributed to a collaboration between Vasari and Bartolomeo Ammannati.

In Castiglion Fiorentino, in the Church of San Francesco, is preserved his Madonna and Child with Saints Anna, Silvestro and Francesco, while in Monte San Savino we can find the Ascension of the Virgin between Saints Agostino and Romualdo, in the Church of Sant’Agostino.

Finally, the fascinating Camaldoli Monastery in the Park of the Casentino Forests preservs some important paintings by Vasari. In the Church of Saints Donato and Ilariano there are the Madonna and Child between Saints John the Baptist and Jerome, a marvelous Nativity,  to which many scholars dedicated praise in Latin verse, and the panel of the High Altar, rich in colors and lights, in which we note an important evolution in the artist's style, now outside the protection of the Medici, who in this dark period established a strong bond with the Camaldolese monks.

Original article by Katia Boccanera