Giorgio Vasari, a Florentine architect, artist, and art historian, will soon become a household name among those interested in Renaissance art. The most significant written source for the period's artistic history is his collection "Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects," published in 1568. Many of the most prominent artists of 16th-century Italy were among his friends and acquaintances. His circle included many friends who had known their predecessors in the fifteenth century.

 The concept of the Renaissance is attributed to Vasari. He even coined the term "renaissance" (rebirth), which can be characterized as a revival of strict classicism and is characterized by two traits: acceptance of classical Greek and Roman aesthetics and the conviction that these ideals ought to serve as the fundamental framework for all artistic creation. 

Vasari claimed that the Italian painter Giotto, who lived in the 14th century, started a "rebirth" of art. The developments in art that led to the Renaissance style a century later were influenced by Giotto's creations. The term was later expanded by Jules Michelet, a 19th-century French historian, to include artwork produced in Italy between the "quattrocento" (1400–1500) and "cinquecento" (1500–1600) periods. Vasari became a well-known artist theorist after articulating classicist principles in his "Lives"; his influence extended beyond the strict classicist school. 

Period artists combined early medieval and classicist aesthetics. Others employed classical elements as tools to achieve the exceptional, refined realism seen during the late High Renaissance. Long after the Renaissance had come to an end, artists continued to work in these traditions. Vasari was a crucial source of theory for these semi-classicists. Vasari's importance as an artist is primarily disregarded, despite his stature. However, he was a painter by trade. His creative output was excellent but fell just short of genius. (Www.Theepochtimes.Com, 2022)