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Antiquity was the great theme in British painting in the last decades of the 18th century. Its influence can be traced in two areas particularly - in literature, which often comes close to the macabre, and in the excavations of antique sites, which were followed with intense interest at the time. Joseph Wright's Miravan Opening the Grave of his Forefathers illustrates an example from literature. One story is that Miravan found on the grave of his forefathers the inscription: "In this grave lies a greater treasure than Croesus possessed." But the central character finds only bones and another inscription: "Here dwells rest! Criminal, you seek gold among the dead? Go, greedy one, you will never find rest!" The subject has a double meaning. It not only illustrates the legend itself, but was also probably intended as a criticism of the growing desecration of antique sites.
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