![]() Plutarch attempted to combine history, biography, and moral philosophy by writing them in pairs, one Greek, the other Roman, and appending a comparison. The Lives are a unique resource compiled by one of the finest Greek writers of classical times. Having just completed my account in paintings of the stories in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and his less well-known Heroides, I now turn to its successor, Plutarch’s Lives. ![]() ![]() And finally, on delivery, the artist could expound the virtues and fidelity of their work. The details of the narrative to be painted could be checked before the first studies were drawn. Patrons who wished to select a motif for their purchase from the painter could choose from the thousands of stories contained in those books. Most studios and workshops contained bookshelves with key reference works, including the Bible, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil’s Aeneid, and Plutarch’s Lives (or Parallel Lives). ![]() Until the late twentieth century, most had been thoroughly educated in the Classics and the Bible. Literary sources were (and still are) crucial to a great many artists. ![]()
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