The work is a history painting depicting an episode from Plutarch 's Lives in which Greek court physician Erasistratus diagnoses the illness of Antiochus as lovesickness for his stepmother Stratonice .
Antiochus is the son of Seleucus I .
The work is a history painting depicting an episode from Plutarch 's Lives in which Greek court physician Erasistratus diagnoses the illness of Antiochus , the son of Seleucus I , as lovesickness for his stepmother Stratonice .