Art News

Book Asks Who’s Greater, Michelangelo or Leonardo?

LONDON (REUTERS).- A new book focuses on a 16th century competition that set out to discover who was the better artist — Michelangelo or Leonardo Da Vinci, and says the outcome profoundly influenced the Renaissance titans’ legacies. Jonathan Jones, a British art critic who has been a Turner Prize judge, said the contest was familiar to art historians but to his knowledge had not been treated as the subject for a book. “The Lost Battles: Leonardo, Michelangelo and the Artistic Duel that Defined the Renaissance,” published by Simon & Schuster,” hits stores on Thursday and describes a dramatic and defining moment in art history. The decision by Florence officials that Michelangelo was the victor helped launch the younger artist’s career and set him on a path to glory with key commissions in Rome. Leonardo, meanwhile, was sidelined despite having a more established reputation, and ended up in the French court, which would have been looked down upon by Italy’s art patrons. “You are