Though the beauty of the English language is such that the word "modern" refers explicitly to now but the word "contemporary" can refer to any time period at al

Though the beauty of the English language is such that the word "modern" refers explicitly to now but the word "contemporary" can refer to any time period at all, depending on context! With the ultimate fun being that contemporary can mean exactly its own opposite: "DaVinci's work surpasses all contemporary art." Does that mean DaVinci's contemporaries or the writer's contemporaries?