“Compagni,” “Creati,” and “Garzoni”:The Hidden Key Figures of Florentine Art Production

In both written and visual sources, Giorgio Vasari hid the collective body of artists producing the great masterpieces of his time behind the names and faces of singular masters. Ever since his ‘Le Vite de’ piu eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori’ (1550/1568) art history has mainly focused on famous individuals. Despite a recent increase of interest in several individual less well-known painters of the Florentine Cinquecento, the way artists formed a strong network and collaborated with the known masters still remains elusive. Based on archival research with a focus on the assistants in Vasari’s workshop in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, this paper aims to provide important new insights in those ‘compagni’, ‘creati’, and ‘garzoni’ that did not end up in Vasari’s Vite but played a pivotal role in the production of his works of art