The Origins of Art

On the left of the majestic chimney on the northwest wall of the Sala Grande a kneeling youth is portrayed. He is tracing the contours of his shadow on the wall by the light of a lamp. Vasari himself provides the key to interpreting this scene in the preface to the “Lives”, in which a long passage is devoted to the question of the origins of art: With reference to the ancient author Pliny the Elder and his “Naturalis historiae", Vasari tells the story of Gyges of Lydia, who sat by the fire contemplating his own shadow and then followed his instinct to sketch it on the wall with a piece of charcoal. In stylizing Gyges as the first artist in his interpretation of the Pliny text, Vasari thus perceives the beginning of art as a narcissistically motivated making of a self-portrait. However, Vasari considered Gyges’ drawing not only the starting point of painting, but also the common foundation for all arts. This ambitious concept of the “disegno” (drawing, draft), which runs through Vasari’s entire theoretical writing, was also practiced in the “Accademia del Disegno” in Florence, established in 1563. Vasari was one of the founding members of this institution, which is considered to be one of the first art schools in Europe.