Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects by Giorgio Vasari

Vasari was a renaissance artist commisioned by Cosimo de Medici to write an encyclopedia of Italian artists. The writing is of the time: florid, complementary (i.e. no or minimal hints at controversy) and a bit obtuse. But, he was a contemporary, he knew many of these artists, and he was one of them both painter and sculptor, Michelangelo's bones rest in a Vasari sculpted tomb. All renaissance art biographies eventually make reference to Vasari, confirming, embellishing, denying, Vasari is the man. But it takes work to read him.