Antonio Rossellino, the Eros of Praxiteles, and Michelangelo’s David

Abstract

For Renaissance writers on art, few tropes enjoyed the prominence of comparison between contemporary and ancient practitioners. Among a select group of comparanda, the most commonwere surely Apelles for painters and Praxiteles for sculptors, though Myron, Lysippus, Phidias, and others made sporadic appearances. To modern readers, such analogies vary widely in their appropriateness and utility, responding to regional and momentary tastes, friendships, networks, and rivalries. Battista Spagnoli’s claim that the art of the ancients “is tarnished and loses all luster”when seen alongside that of Andrea Mantegna accords, in spirit, with art historical estimations of the significance of his