 The lost painting of Timanthes from Ancient Greece copied in a first-century fresco in Pompeii was one of the most celebrated representations of the sacrifice of Iphigenia from antiquity, to which Cicero, Quintillian, Valerius Maximus and Pliny the Elder all made reference.The aesthetic impact of the painting was such that it was even cited by the Abbé d'Aubignac in his celebrated "Theatrical Practice", published in 1657 and annotated by Racine.He wrote that in order to depict the sacrifice of Iphigenia one should imitate the different degrees of grief amongst those present