The Great Masters: Giotto, Botticelli, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian

Michelangelo often slept in his clothes. Leonardo loved and kept horses. Vasari's famous Lives of the Artists (1550), which helped to establish the reputations of many Renaissance masters, is readable today chiefly for its lively gossip. From his multi-volume opus, six bios are reprinted here: the lives of Giotto, Botticelli, da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo and Titian. Although de Vere's 1912 text may not be a translation for our time, it is serviceable enough despite its antiquated flavor. Interwoven with the narratives are superb color reproductions of little-known and familiar works by each artist, pictures by their contemporaries, color gatefolds and marginal annotations. This sumptuous, oversized album gives the reader a sense of how these Renaissance geniuses burst upon the world with their prodigious visions. (October 30)