Art Without an AuthorWhy is the history of art so often construed as a history of artists, when its alleged focus is art? This book responds to this question by examining Giorgio Vasaris Lives and the artist it features most centrally, Michelangelo. Printed in Florence in 1550 and republished in a substantially enlarged form in 1568, the Lives is a compendium of biographies of the most noteworthy artists, from the late Middle Ages to Vasaris time. Perhaps no other text