Paragons and Paragone: Van Eyck, Raphael, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Bernini

The paragone—the notion of competition and rivalry among the arts—has been a topic of debate for centuries. It erupted with great force in the Renaissance, with sculptors vying with painters for superiority, modern artists competing with the ancients, and painting challenging poetry. If the traces of this lively conversation are most evident in the literature, the remarkable scholarship presented here demonstrates how the paragone was rendered visible also in works of art.

The essays on Ren...