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Rona Goffen’s book Renaissance Rivals: Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, Titian is an in-depth study of the master artists of the Renaissance era. The book focuses on the interactions of these major artists and describes the ways in which the artists imitate each other, borrow from each other, and in a few cases, are placed in side by side competition, creating rivalries between each of them. What Goffen does in presenting all of this evidence in a collective, cohesive fashion is suggest that the Renaissance was caused by and fueled by the interaction, be it imitation, inspiration or direct confrontation, of the great masters of the time, as well as their inspirations and interactions of works of antiquity and the interactions between their patrons. Goffen finds that the Italian Renaissance was caused by these interactions that range from side by side competitions to subtle inspirations from a foreigner’s stance.
Goffen supports this argument very well in the form of biographies of the four titular artists with an emphasis on their interactions, as well as their interactions with some other key players, such as Sebastiano del Piombo and Jacopo Pontormo. Goffen collects her biographical data from a large number of worthy sources including renaissance-contemporary biographers, most notably Giorgio Vasari and Ascanio Condivi, and letters from and to the artists themselves. Goffen does take political and associative bias into account, however, when assessing these sources, often with a skeptical eye. She takes all of these sources into account and combines them, as exampled in a section where Goffen is describing the natural inspiration that Michelangelo acquired when redesigning Northern artist Martin Schongauer’s work Temptation of Saint Anthony: “And so Michelangelo went to the fish market (according to Condivi), perhaps actually buying some (according to Vasari). Copying from Nature, Michelangelo endowed Anthony’s demons with bizarre colors (Vasari) and fishy eyes (Condivi)…” (Goffen 74).
Renaissance Rivals opens with a lengthy introduction that begins with the rivalry that initiated the Renaissance: Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi’s competition to adorn the Baptistry doors with a relief of the Sacrifice of Issac. Rivals then defines the rivalries of the artists in three ways: Imitatio/Renovatio, Agon, and Paragone. Imitatio/Revovatio being the imitation and subtle inspiration that can be seen between two pieces of artwork, Agon being the literal face to face conflict that occurred between some artists, and Paragone which is defined as the competition between not only the artists but between the arts (architecture, sculpture, and painting). These descriptions, along with several appropriate anecdotes, prove to be quite useful in the body of the book, which is separated into two main sections: Protagonist and Antagonists.
Rona Goffen has labeled Michelangelo Buonarroti as the protagonist of the story of the Italian Renaissance. The reason for this is somewhat unclear, but is most likely because of the high esteem that is held for him by the main biographers of the time: Condivi and Vasari. Because they viewed Michelangelo as the pinnacle of art in the modern world, every other artist can do nothing but be compared to the him. The Antagonists are identified as Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael Sanzio, and Titian Vecelli, the other highly renowned artists of the time.
Michelangelo’s story starts at the beginning of his professional career with the redesign of Schongauer’s Saint Anthony as well as several other examples of Michelangelo’s blatant borrowing of ideas from other artists, disproving Vasari’s claim that Michelangelo’s only inspiration came from antiquity and nature. Goffen portrays the image of a young Michelangelo living in the Medici household under the eye of Lorenzo (il Magnifico) de Medici. When living in this household he experimented with the relief sculpture style of Donatello, but quickly abandoned it. Goffen skillfully portrays Michelangelo’s close relationship with Lorenzo de Medici and his subsequent distancing from the Medici family after Lorenzo’s death, leading up to his commission of the David, a symbol of Florentine independence of the Medici regime. Goffen provides an example of Michelangelo’s imitatio by showing the similarities between the triangular formation in his breakthrough sculpture, the Pietá, and that formation that is so prominent and was characteristic of all of Leonardo’s work. Goffen also points out Michelangelo’s agon with Baccio Bandinelli for commission of the Medici’s Hercules monument that was to stand parallel to his own David in the Palazzo Vecchio. There is also a strong emphasis on the analysis of Michelangelo’s style and disegno emphasis, from his feminized male statue of Bacchus to his masculinized female portrayals of Night and Dawn in the tomb of Guiliano de Medici. Overall, Rona Goffen paints a portrait of Michelangelo’s life that somewhat disproves Vasari and Condivi’s accounts of the great artist, portraying him as a little more mortal than previously announced, while still giving him credit for creating what have now become some of the staples of the Renaissance.
The account of the Antagonists essentially follows chronological order, beginning with Michelangelo’s first rival: Leonardo Da Vinci. Leonardo’s chapter starts off with the agon between Leonardo’s Battle of Anghiari with Michelangelo’s Battle of Cascina, both commissioned by the Signoria to be set in the same room, meant to be compared. This is a great example of a patron’s role in the agon between many artists, as many patrons would purposefully commission pieces of the same size and subject, to compare the artists who made them. Goffen points out Michelangelo’s further imitatio of Leonardo’s signature triangular formation. She suggests that Michelangelo may have adapted the triangular style from Leonardo for several sculptures and paintings, but rejected other parts of Leonardo’s style, replacing his sfumato (ex. Madonna and child and Saint Anne) for a clearer mastery of disegno (ex. Doni Tondo) Goffen also suggests the difference in attitude between the two masters: Leonardo with an open door and proper hygiene, and Michelangelo with the opposite in both regards.
This attitude comparison is continued in the next interaction, with Raphael of Urbino. Rona Goffen portrays Raphael as the social antithesis of Michelangelo, telling of the pure kindness that Raphael is documented by Vasari to have embodied: “even the animals honored him” (Goffen 173). Goffen admits in a moment of colloquialism, “His parents must have done something right.” (Goffen 172). Raphael is depicted as being highly assimilative, absorbing the style of the masters that surround him in his various locations of residence. He borrows from Leonardo and then heavily from Michelangelo’s disegno. However, Goffen points out that Raphael developed a clear advantage in the feminine colorito that Michelangelo lacked, to which Michelangelo responded with his alliance with the Venetian Sebastiano. Venetians being known for their skill in colorito, Michelangelo would supply Sebastiano with the designs and cartoons for paintings to be colored by Sebastiano, effectively using their alliance to supersede Raphael’s skill. Goffen points out many quotations of Michelangelo in Raphael’s work, such as the position of Jesus in Raphael’s Entombment quoting Michelangelo’s Jesus in the Pietá, also referencing the paragone of these two mediums. Another main topic considered in Raphael’s section takes place after Raphael and Michelangelo’s move to Rome: the agon provided by patron Pope Julius II between Michelangelo painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and Raphael making the frescoes in the Stanze di Raffaello, practically adjacent rooms. Goffen argues that Michelangelo was reluctant to take on the assignment of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, but was forced into the job by Bramante (ally of Raphael). She also points out, as many have before her, the last minute addition to The School of Athens: the brooding Michelangelo as Heraclitus.
Rona Goffen’s analysis of Titan’s rivalry with Michelangelo is far different from that of Raphael or Leonardo; because Titian and Michelangelo only (officially, as documented) met once in Rome, their interaction was much more subtle and based more in the imitatio aspect of competition. However, Goffen does suggest that Titian “was perhaps Michelangelo’s greatest rival,” (Goffen 265). Because Titian was a Venetian, he pertained more to the colorito tradition and when looking for disegno elements to add to his paintings, he turned to Michelangelo and to antiquity. Goffen points out the believable example of Titian’s Saint Sebastian with Michelangelo’s Slave marble statue (once again evoking the concept of paragone). Goffen also points out the alliance between Michelangelo and Jacopo Pontormo that had the same purpose as Michelangelo’s alliance with Sebastiano: to compete with the colorito of the Venetians. Goffen finds that Titan was such a worthy rival of Michelangelo because he was so successful with his consistent international clients. This is an interesting stance, considering their drastically different styles, and the opinions of writers in the time of the Renaissance.
Rona Goffen concludes with a section about the vicious rivalry between Baccio Bandinelli and Benvenuto Cellini. This section digresses into another large portion about Michelangelo, in the end pointing out that Bandinelli and Cellini’s rivalry was perhaps a triangular rivalry, balanced by the works of Michelangelo. The best example of this suggestion is Michelangelo’s David, which is situated next to Bandinelli’s highly contested Hurcules and Cacus, both of which face Cellini’s epic, bronze Perseus. Baccio Bandinelli’s Hercules aimed to challenge David both stylistically and politically, but “In the opinion of its first audience, Baccio’s Hurcules lost the contest resoundingly” (Goffen 360). Cellini’s bronze Perseus challenges the other two statues, turning them to stone without blood.
All in all, this telling of the rivals of the Renaissance seems to be an extremely well researched and balanced statement. When Rona Goffen chose to state a possibly controversial opinon, she always managed to include a question mark, as if to make the suggestion, but not necessarily the statement. With Renaissance Rivals, Rona Goffen tells the story of the classically regarded favorite artists of the Renaissance in a delightful and insightful in-depth account of their interactions with each other.

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