The Vasari Corridor

**Aly Fell** · November 21st, 2011, 05:47 PM

Just watched Andrew Graham-Dixon's documentary on 'Art in America' on BBC4, which was very interesting (three parts), and was reminded of a documentary he did on Georgio Vasari and the Medici's, where he visited 'one of the great secret art collections': The Vasari Corridor that runs through Florence over the Ponte Vecchio. Fascinating!:

**Black Spot** · November 21st, 2011, 06:21 PM

Damn I miss playing snooker with him. That's a wonderful collection. Is there a catalogue of them?

**Aly Fell** · November 21st, 2011, 06:23 PM

Not that I know of. I'll do a bit of digging... Was he a pal of yours?

**Elwell** · November 22nd, 2011, 06:35 AM

"Vasari Corridor" would make a good band name.

**Black Spot** · November 22nd, 2011, 01:33 PM

Originally Posted by Aly Fell

Was he a pal of yours?

We were members of the same snooker club. He was still working for the Independent at the time as was just about to embark on his TV career. He was also better than me at snooker, but we all had handicaps to even things out. Used to chat to him a lot, but I chatted to everyone. He's a really nice guy. I moved to the other side of London, so I haven't seen him in years.

**Aly Fell** · November 22nd, 2011, 02:12 PM

He seems like a nice chap. I enjoy his enthusiastic approach to all art without particular bias. I get wearied of people dragging their own issues into art documentaries, and Mr Graham-Dixon does this much less than others.

On another note, I used to play snooker at a club in Manchester called The Rialto and was there late one night when Kirk Stevens and Alex Higgins came in and started playing each other for £50 notes. My friend and I had a pro match to watch all for ourselves. Higgins even tripped over and sat on my lap! I didn't realise then that he has a few, er, problems...

**Black Spot** · November 22nd, 2011, 02:21 PM

Well the club that we attended had Ray Readon, Steve Davis, Stephen Henry and Ronnie O'Sullivan as members. Even saw Dean O'Kane and Cliff Thorburn. One of the owners was the instigator of the B&H tournament.

Knew someone who beat Higgins at an exhibition and he lost it completely, but he sure made snooker interesting to watch - his technique was appalling.

**strybjorn** · November 22nd, 2011, 02:58 PM

speaking of Vasari, i found this english translation of his "Lives of the Artists" online the other day. Dunno if its something that everyone has already seen, but i found it interesting. I only found it coz i was looking for info on Leonardo Da Vincis nephew (Pierino Da Vinci) after they talked about him on QI.

i have no Snooker related anecdotes however...

**Aly Fell** · November 22nd, 2011, 03:06 PM

Originally Posted by strybjorn

speaking of Vasari, i found this english translation of his "Lives of the Artists" online the other day. Dunno if its something that everyone has already seen, but i found it interesting. I only found it coz i was looking for info on Leonardo Da Vincis nephew (Pierino Da Vinci) after they talked about him on QI.

i have no Snooker related anecdotes however...

Thank you! And as for the latter part of your post: probably just as well.

**Arshes Nei** · November 22nd, 2011, 03:30 PM

Originally Posted by Elwell

"Vasari Corridor" would make a good band name.

I thought it was the sequel to a Fabula Architecture

**AndreasM** · November 25th, 2011, 09:46 AM

I went on a guided tour last fall. The guide is geared towards tourists and what that means, essentially, is that the guide would stop at all the paintings with a historical significance connected to the Medici family, (mostly darkly brown, faded paintings) while we would walk hurriedly past the "painters paintings," of Velasquez, Krøyer, Zor and so on. Still, it was a good experience, though it feels like the whole corridor is a waste of some great paintings. It's rarely open to the public and the tours are terribly expensive.