Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), born in Tuscany, studied in Florence with Michelangelo while he was still a boy. When his patron, Duke Alessandro, was assassinated, Vasari wandered round Italy filling his notebooks with sketches; by his thirties, Vasari was a highly successful painter. He returned to Florence in 1555, where he was appointed architect of the Palazzo Vecchio. Vasari was knighted by Pope Pius V in 1571.