THE NORTH LOOKS SOUTH: GIORGIO VASARI AND EARLY MODERN VISUAL CULTURE IN THE KINGDOM OF NAPLES

This article considers how the artist, writer and critic Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) in his canonical text Le vite de più eccellenti pittori scultori e architettori characterized the artists working in the city of Naples and the monuments they produced. Through his own experience working in Naples (1544–45) Vasari acquired significant first‐hand knowledge of the city and its artistic culture. His account of his experiences and those of other artists who worked in the city portrays Naples as lacking a dominant local artistic tradition and the support of active and interested patrons. With the intention of furthering the central themes and aims of his text, Vasari created a carefully constructed image of Naples as a rhetorical foil for the alleged superior virtue and strength of northern artists and urban centres where art and architecture played a key role in civic pride.