3. Ascanio Condivi, The Life of Michelangelo Buonarotti 1553.

Vasari had concluded his 1550 first edition of the Vite with the life of his celebratory contemporary, the sculptor and painter, Michelangelo Buonarotti. In between Vasari’s first and second editions of the Lives, Ascanio Condivi – an assistant to Michelangelo - penned a single “definitive” biographical account of the great artist.

Condivi’s life of Michelangelo is seen by some scholars, as a work that verges on the autobiographical. Much like the definitive biographies of celebrities today, the author and the artist sought to influence and establish the narrative of the sculptor in the minds of their contemporaries. This included countering certain aspects of Vasari’s biography.

Condivi also attempts to play down alleged displays of volatility and tempestuousness that Michelangelo, it was said, displayed at times towards patrons and other artists. At the same time Condivi flatters the artist with claims of an apocryphal aristocratic lineage.

Condivi’s Life of Michelangelo, like Vasari’s Lives gives an accessible and compelling narrative account for the modern reader, covering all the landmark achievements of this titanic figure. However, the quality of the writing has seemed to be contradicted by the mediocrity of Condivi’s surviving letters. This has led some scholars to propose, that the work was heavily edited by the writer and poet Annibale Caro.