DEFINING ARTISTIC IDENTITY IN THE FLORENTINE RENAISSANCE: VASARI, EMBEDDED SELF-PORTRAITS, AND THE PATRON'S ROLE

TL;DRAbstract

Readers of Vasari's Vite will be aware of the lively Renaissance tradition of the artist's embedded portrait within commissioned works. We are told of numerous embedded self-portraits, a notion that earlier authors including Alberti, Filippo Villani, and Ghiberti, corroborate. This dissertation argues that the Vite, our most extensive source on the subject, set up ideas and expectations that continue to pervade our understanding of their purposes and functions. A primary aim here is to move beyond Vasari's assumptions and examine self-images from the standpoint of their audience rather than their creators. Chapter One examines aspects of our current knowledge concerning Vasari's historical context and his motivations as an artist, courtier, and writer in order to understand how his views informed his interpretation of the genre. Chapter Two examines a manuscript self-portrait by Pietro da Pavia and a sculpted self-portrait of Andrea Orcagna. It investigates issues of artistic identity

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