Art may not have its own Super Bowl — a good thing, that — but it never lacks for head-to-head competitions. Picasso and Matisse played show-me-what-you-got for decades, continually rolling out works ...

It’s difficult to imagine a time when images of our faces were not only rare and expensive, but treated almost as sacred objects. But in 15th- and 16th-century Europe, portraits were often obscured ...

The Renaissance was full of world-famous rivalries: from the Medici and the Pazzi families who feuded over who would rule Florence, to Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo who scrapped over commissions ...