ABSTRACT
Pairing Nicholas Biddle with Lord Byron may seem an odd thing to do, but as individuals and as subjects of portraits by Sully they make for a mutually illuminating comparison. Contemporaries often compared Biddle's appearance to Byron's. Biddle, like Byron fascinated by Greece, decided in 1806 to see for himself that classical land. Greece, since 1456 part of the Ottoman Empire, was then an unusual destination. Through Fauvel Biddle met Lusieri, the painter supervising Lord Elgin's removal of the Parthenon Marbles to Britain. Shocked by the damage that time and neglect had done to the statuary known to posterity as the 'Elgin Marbles', Biddle four years before Byron expressed outrage over the actions of the 'Scotch vandal'. The United States spawned Byronic figures of varying personalities and achievements. Artists often rendered political leaders in a neoclassical style intended to indicate high-minded purpose and dedication; theatrical and literary figures were often posed in more Romantic fashion.
