Answered>Order 11603

After reading Vasari’s “Life of Michelangelo” and Wallace’s “A Week in the Life of Michelangelo,” please answer the following three questions.

Please note that Vasari is a contemporary of Michelangelo and thus his biography is considered a primary source (something that was written or created in the time period under study). Wallace is a modern art historian, who has researched Michelangelo’s life (using multiple primary sources including Vasari) for his article (which is a secondary source). These authors have very different motivations (for more on Vasari’s motivation’s make sure to listen to this week’s narrated talks), which you should keep in mind, while reading and answering the following questions.

For following questions make sure to not only quote/refer to the first couple of pages of the readings, make sure to show you read both readings fully.

1. Pick a quote or episode from Vasari’s biography of Michelangelo, which you feel would support the following statement and explain why. Statement: “Vasari contributed to the development of the status of the arts and artists through his description of Michelangelo’s life.”
2. Pick a quote or episode from Vasari’s biography of Michelangelo that gives a sense of Michelangelo’s relationship with his patrons and/or his artistic method (i.e. does he seem to have more or less artistic freedom than Baxandall described artists having in the 1400s). 
3. How does Vasari’s characterization of Michelangelo compare to Wallace’s description of his typical week? (i.e. What seems different about the two descriptions? What elements of Michelangelo’s life (especially his artistic practice) does Wallace describe that Vasari doesn’t? Why might Vasari not have emphasized these elements?)