Swaran, after The Apotheosis of French Heroes Who Died for Their Country during the War for Liberty

In this print illustrating a detail from a painting by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson, Hyacinthe Louis Aubry-Lecomte highlighted Swaran, the villainous son of Starno (seen in the print at left). This subject would have been popular with the French public, who were fascinated by the epic poetry of Ossian, a third-century Scottish bard and the principal subject of Girodet’s painting. The poems purported to be by Ossian were actually authored by James Macpherson in the 1760s, with content compiled from various sources.