The Studio of the Painter

This fresco is part of the paintings decorating the house of Vasari in Florence.

It is characteristic of Vasari’s self-confidence that the artistic and intellectual effort he invested in designing his own home was comparable to that which he expended on the residences of those who commissioned his work. He decorated his house in Arezzo between 1542 and 1548; toward the end of his life he also frescoed his Florentine house, which had been given to him by Duke Cosimo I in 1561. In both cases the paintings refer to the role of the painter, who saw himself in the tradition of ancient painters (to whom individual episodes of both cycles are devoted).