What happens when the two greatest artists of all times meet for a showdown?
That showdown actually took place.
The mayor of Florence commissioned the paintings (frescoes) from Michelangelo Buonarroti and Leonardo da Vinci. They were each told to paint a scene from the history of Florence on one of the walls of the Council Room of the Town Hall.
Expectation ran high. Of course neither of the artists allowed anyone to see what he was doing while he worked at home. Of the two, Michelangelo must have been the more worried. Leonardo was a generation older and had established his reputation. Michelangelo grew up hearing about Leonardo’s genius—was he jealous? His biographers speak of his dislike for Leonardo.
Leonardo was also an experienced painter and Michelangelo had painted very little so far. He had never painted in fresco. He was a sculptor.
What happened? Who won?
Officially, neither genius, because Michelangelo never painted his fresco and Leonardo ruined his.
However, copies of Michelangelo’s preparatory drawing (cartoon) and of Leonardo’s fresco have survived and give us a fair idea of what each man would have painted.
Here is Michelangelo’s (after an old copy):
(Click twice on thumbnail to enlarge)
He chose a scene of a famous battle between the Florentines and the Pisans. The soldiers were bathing in the Arno River when the call to arms was sounded and they had to dress and arm themselves in a hurry.
Leonardo chose a cavalry skirmish from another famous battle. This is a copy by Rubens of a copy:
(Click twice on thumbnail to enlarge)
As you can see, it is impossible to say which was “better”. Apples and oranges. That always happens when you compare the work of great geniuses, not only in painting.
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I found this post SO interesting, and I continually wonder HOW it is that you know all this interesting stuff!
Well, if I were on that committee doing the choosing, I would have chosen Leonardo’s, hands down. I saw Micaelangelo’s first and looked at it carefully for a full minute or two. I didn’t dislike it, but thought it was quite provocative, and I wondered what some of the figures were “doing.” Then I saw Leonardo’s picture, and it only two me about two seconds of seeing that to make up my mind definitively.
Not only was it more visually striking (to me personally), it also seems much more APPROPRIATE for a public works project. (The figures are DRESSED, and not so provocative-looking, for one thing.) I have no doubt the committee would have thought so, too! This choice of Michaelangelo’s really seems to support what you said in a previous post about his being a “show-off!”
Madame Monet
Writing, Painting, Music, and Wine
winewriter.wordpress.com
I agree with you– they’re impossible for me to compare. I think they’re both amazing.
I love the new look of your site!
Madame Monet, thanks a lot for all your comments and observations. Michelangelo was a show-off but he can show off the Moses and the David and the Slaves and the Medici tomb figures any old time as far as I’m concerned and I will be happily shown-off to.
This copy of his cartoon was done by nobody in particular and so it can only be used to get an idea of the original. The “Leonardo”, though a copy of a copy of a copy, was done by no less an artist than Rubens, and looks like it. Michelangelo’s accumulation of nudes, which worked on the Sistine wall, was probably a bad choice here. You’d think he would have been better off concentrating on just a few soldiers fighting, like big statues. Still, his cartoon was very much praised at the time and some of the best artists of Florence went to see and copy it and “learn how to draw”, as Vasari says.
Thanks, Moonbeam. I wonder which of my experiments you liked—I guess this one, which has been there all night. I had tried three of my own headers and rejected them one after another. Finally, in frustration, I clicked on this “standard” one. I think I ought to have one of my own making and will keep trying.
Yes, your new blog look is more visible, more easy to read, more pleasant. In the question who win the showdown I think we did… I wonder if you spoke of the Michelangelo’s dislike of Leonardo CAUSE…A misunderstanding, as so often happens: one day, Leonardo was in a group of admirers and discussing poetry and such…Dante came up as a subject and since Leonardo himself knew about Michelangelo’s fame as a connoisseur of Dante’s and Michelangelo just passed near, leonardo said “Why don’t we ask Michelangelo, who’s an expert?” (I think he said in good faith) But Michelangelo interpreted this as an ironical or mocking question and answered very rude, letting Leonardo and the others wondering about his sanity… He was very suspicious and at times grumpy… and so a coomunication problem developped in a hate-dislike relation… I hope I’m exact about the incident… Vasari as a source?
I think Michelangelo wasn’t necessarily jealous. I think he was intimidated and being very anti-social didnt help either. As for the pieces, I actually prefer Leonardo’s over Michelangelo’s on this one. I just think the composition is more interesting as it has horses and actually looks like a battle. Don’t get me wrong though, Michelangelo’s piece is just as strong and I’m a fan of both anyway.
Danu:
That story isn’t in Condivi or Vasari. There’s a slim chance it comes from a third contemporary Life, the first one, very short and full of errors according to everyone, by a man named Giovio. I’ve never seen that one. My guess is it comes from a movie or a fictionalized biography. As drama it’s good: in a short scene the author shows the character of both men and the cause or crystallization of their hate for each other. So si non e vero.… Shakespeare did that in plays like Julius Caesar with facts he picked up from Plutarch.
In his Life of Leonardo Vasari says: “Leonardo and Michelangelo strongly disliked each other, and so Michelangelo left Florence because of their rivalry [imagine!] after he had been summoned by the Pope to discuss the completion of the facade of San Lorenzo; and when he heard this, Leonardo also left Florence [imagine twice!!] and went to France.” No reason given for this spectacular aversion.
Hi Aryul. You may be right—maybe there was no jealousy. And I have to say that I have always preferred the Leonardo too, though I feel wrong basing my judgment on those copies (there’s a painted copy of the Leonardo that looks even more beautiful).
Vasari raves for two pages about Michelangelo’s lost cartoon. He says things like: “People who have seen these inspired figures declare that they have never been surpassed by Michelangelo himself or by anyone else, and that no one can ever again reach such sublime heights”. Vasari treats the cartoon as a lesson in drawing and anatomy, though, and doesn’t speak about its appropriateness as a fresco for the Town Hall wall.
Thanks, Madame Monet, for saying you like my new look (and the history lessons. Is that what they are? I don’t want to scare anyone away!). As I told Moonbeam, however, I’d like one with my own header and so I will keep experimenting. Maybe someone happened to see one with a marble dog I had on last night. I ended up deleting it first thing in the morning. It looked too plain. The present one has all kinds of options for the visitor, though it does look circus-y. And Cantueso is right about the way it messed up my pages.
Hold on until you see the final version, Cantueso.
Hi Moonbeam. You saw what I did to your last comments: I joined your second one to the first so people could see your amendment right away. But I knew right away you meant the statues and not my posts. I’m glad you like “the history lessons” and the provisional new look (you’d think we were talking about a hairdo!). I hope you will like the one I finally decide on too. I see by your front page that you are really good at handling the options and decorating in your own way.
Michelangelo represented a scene that occurred the day before the actual Battle of Cascina, the subject of his lost cartoon.
I am a sculptor and I favor Michelangelo so I would have thought there is no way for Leonardo to win if I judge, but in my humble and suprising opinion, Leonardo’s composition is superior.
Let’s see him try that in the round!
hi michelangelo
I love this website!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And shouldn’t you rather do a Michelangelo vs Bernini or Cellini? I thought you can’t really compare apples and oranges (Michelangelo and Leonardo), but you could compare various types of apples and say that Bernini won’t set up his apples without the tree, for instance.
The hardest to do, I suppose, would be Cellini, because how am I to understand that he did mainly salt shakers for the royalty and then he did that Perseus? Was there a big demand for salt shakers?
According to Ruskin’s way of seeing these things, there would have been a rich merchant clientele that wanted artistic doorhandles and aesthetic coffee spoons rather than monuments to the gods.
Sigh.
Although maybe there can be an answer about wich was the best of these works is not for us to say it, would be too foolish, they were a league apart.
Sadly no living artist today can approach to their crafstmanship.
Those secret techniques got lost in history & is about time to get them back from the grave!
George: As to craftsmanship I’m sure quite a few modern painters approach those two. Remember that Leonardo’s “secret” (experimental) technique made him ruin the fresco. Those old secrets would never by themselves make a great painting, which is the work of a great painter. Someone like Leonardo would today find his own secrets and paint in his own way, don’t you think?
very nice