Seven of the greatest rivalries in the history of art

Born just a year apart (Turner in sleepy London in 1775, Constable in a sleepy Suffolk village in 1776), the two were from the beginning “fire and water,” as another reviewer described them in 1831. Turner, whose father was a barber, was only 14 when he began studying art, while Constable, born into a wealthy family of corn merchants, did not commit to painting until he was in his twenties. Their widely differing temperaments and views on life would not only influence their own styles, but would become a source of constant fascination for the critics, who never tired of pitting them against each other. For one anonymous reviewer in the London Review of 1829, Constable was “all truth” while Turner was “all poetry”. He concluded by saying: “One is silver and the other is gold.”

It goes without saying that no competitor dreams of getting a silver medal. But what does it take to get to the top? A quick look at some of the greatest rivalries in art history—from the titanic clash between Leonardo and Michelangelo in the early 16th century to the famous dispute between Van Gogh and Gauguin near the end of the 19th century—provides useful clues about how to handle oneself when competing with a talented rival. Here are five sayings to master the art of competition.

1. Da Vinci vs. Michelangelo: Disagreement is fuel

According to the Italian writer Giorgio Vasari, one of the most elusive episodes of idle talk between artistic rivals occurred in the streets of Florence around 1503, when Leonardo overheard a group of men discussing some evasive verses by Dante. The men praised the famous painter and polymath, and asked Leonardo to explain the difficult passage. When he noticed that Michelangelo was also passing by at the time, Leonardo turned and said to the group, “He will explain it to you.” Feeling ridiculed, Michelangelo responded sarcastically to Leonardo for his shameful failure to finish a bronze statue of a horse years earlier: “Explain it yourself, you equine modeller who has abandoned his work in disgrace!”

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As fate would have it, the two feuding artists found themselves tasked with creating rival battle scenes on opposite walls of the same room in the Palazzo Vecchio – a confrontation that will forever remain unresolved because the frescoes were never completed. However, there is little doubt, from the copies of fragmentary studies of Leonardo’s Battle of Anghiari and Michelangelo’s Battle of Cascina that have survived, that the dispute focused and nourished the muscles and minds of both men.