An instant success upon publication in the mid-sixteenth century, Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists remains one of the principal resources for study of the art and artists of the Italian Renaissance. Regarded by many as the most influential book on the history of art ever written, the Lives traces the flowering of Italian painting and sculpture over the course of three centuries through colorful and detailed portraits of its most representative figures. This single-volume edition features eight of the most notable artists from Vasari's immense work: Giotto, Masaccio, Fra Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Titian. Also included are an introduction, notes, glossary, and woodcut portraits of each artist by Vasari himself.