Dead Artists Are Better?

Martial, Epigrams 8.69

It’s only the ancients you admire,   Vacerra, and you don’t praise Any poets who aren’t dead. I must ask your pardon, Vacerra;   It simply isn’t worth it For me to die, just to please you. Miraris ueteres, Vacerra, solos nec laudas nisi mortuos poetas. Ignoscas petimus, Vacerra: tanti non est, ut placeam tibi, perire.

Study for Homer with the Poets Ovid, Horace, and Lucan,  Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)