XXV/3 It is Ovid, the master of metamorphosis, whom Dante challenges to a stylistic dual, inviting the reader to witness his superior skill. Echoing once again the format of early book illustrations in keeping with the wealth of literary reference in the Canto, four quasi-Ovidian scenes surround a portrait of the poet (itself derived from various vague Roman likenesses). No precise events in Ovid's Metamorphoses are alluded to, though the original lithograph was itself achieved (using a series of transparencies of an original grisaille) by a process of metamorphosis. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.