EXPERT BIO
MATTHEW LANDRUS
Dr Matthew Landrus is a research fellow at the university of Oxford who specialises on the history of art and science in renaissance Italy. He is the author Leonardo da Vinci’s Giant Crossbow (Springer, 2010) and Leonardo da Vinci: 500 Years on (Welbeck, 2018).
The Mona Lisa, with her slight smile and the statue of David with his impressive physique are two of the most instantly recognisable works of art. Their reputation stretches beyond that of the early modern period and makes them arguably the two most famous artworks in the entire world. It is striking to think that these two pieces were completed in roughly the same period (Mona Lisa between 1503-19 and David between 1501-04) by two men who most likely knew each other personally and, if not, certainly knew each other’s reputation: Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.
These towering figures of the Italian Renaissance developed a bitter rivalry, as they did with other artists in the same period such as Raphael, which may have helped define each artist’s work. This rivalry would see a direct artistic competition between the two when, in the early 16th century, both were commissioned to complete contrasting frescoes in the Renaissance’s equivalent of the ‘Thrilla in Manilla’. But was the rivalry between Leonardo and Michelangelo actually that unusual? Or was it necessary competition in a world where artists relied on wealthy patrons to fund the creation of their masterpieces?
Before we delve into the sometimes frosty relationship between these two Renaissance rivals, it’s important to set the stage for our two combatants. By the early 16th century the Italian Renaissance was already in full swing. It was defined by the notion of ‘humanism’, which was a philosophical concept, rooted in morality, regarding man and his importance in the universe. Florence, the capital of the Tuscany region of Italy, became an important centre of the Renaissance and remains a city
