Giorgio Vasari's fine arts from the Vite of 1550: the splendor of creativity and design

Abstract

Giorgio Vasari’s conception of artistic creativity is related to his theory of painting. He proposes two alternatives in a painter’s development or achievement of artistic creativity: imitation (imitazione) and invention (invenzione). Imitation is the copying of art as a method of learning, whereas invention is independent of imitation and constitutes the means for conceiving artistic ideas. Imitation serves to guide and teach the artist in composing and creating perfection. Vasari maintains that artists must study antiquity and the masters, so that they may learn how others acquired the experience of imitating nature. For Vasari, imitation draws upon three different sources: the first two are copying from nature (copia dal vero) and the third one is selecting from one’s work (imitare se stessi). He emphasizes that copying from nature is important for the artist so that he may learn to create forms that are alive as visualized in the Fine Arts.