Born in Arezzo, Italy, Vasari was a prolific artist and architect who served the Medici family in Florence. His career was defined by his dual role as a practitioner of the Mannerist style and as a chronicler of his contemporaries, most notably Michelangelo, whom he revered as the pinnacle of artistic achievement.

His primary legacy remains his biographical work, which categorized the development of Italian art into three distinct stages. While his historical accounts are now recognized for containing factual inaccuracies, they remain the primary source for understanding the lives and working methods of Renaissance masters.