The Banquet of the Rich Glutton name "Epulone" has been attached in Italy to the rich man, but also generically refers to a "feaster" (with pejorative gluttonous suggestion). The etymology of the word comes from a banquet sometime prepared in honor of the gods. The painting depicts a rich man after completion of his meal, with empty plates, surrounded by servants, while in the background, is the beggar Lazarus. The painting was purchased in 1895 from a Monte di Pietà, where such a painting would have resonated as both a "memento mori" and counsel towards charity. The painting would have been thematically antithetical to the still
Parables of Jesus not felt that this was the kind of teaching best suited to our wants. In the 19th century, Lisco and Fairbairn stated that in the parables of Jesus, "the image borrowed from the visible world is accompanied by a truth from the invisible (spiritual) world" and that the parables of Jesus are not "mere similitudes which serve the purpose of illustration, but are internal analogies where nature becomes a witness for the spiritual world". Similarly, in the 20th century, calling a parable "an earthly story with a heavenly meaning", William Barclay states that the parables of Jesus use familiar examples