About the Book

From one of Britain's most acclaimed art historians, art critic of "The Guardian"--the galvanizing story of the defining moment of the Renaissance: the two greatest artists of their time, commissioned by different people, but working side by side in the same room, a competition out of which would arise the new idea of artistic "genius."
In this rich, fascinating book, published in England to great acclaim ("Superb," --"The Observer"), Jonathan Jones explores this fierce artistic duel between Leonardo and Michelangelo. Here is the master, Leonardo da Vinci, commissioned at age fifty-two by the Florentine Republic to paint a fresco depicting a famous military victory on a wall of the Great Council Hall in the Palazzo Vecchio. And, with an identical commission from Machiavelli, Leonardo's implacable young rival, the thirty-year-old Michelangelo, working on the same wall. Jones writes brilliantly of their "battle," in which Leonardo painted "The Battle of Anghiari" and Michelangelo "The Battle of Cascina"--the legendary "lost" masterpieces--and which led to the recognition, for the first time, of artists as godlike creators of the "new," a notion that still holds true today. A riveting exploration into one of history's most resonant exchanges of ideas.

Product Details

Media: Hardcover Book, 368 pages

Edition: Unknown

Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group

Publication Date: Oct. 23rd, 2012

ISBN-10: 0307594750

ISBN-13: 9780307594754

Shipping Weight: 1.60 lbs

Series: Not Applicable

• Categories: Renaissance Art & Renaissance Art History Renaissance History