Masterpiece

The virtues fortitude, justice, temperance, and prudence take a spotlight throughout the novel, but the two most emphasized are fortitude and justice, which happen to be the names of the two drawings that were stolen from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The relationship between fortitude and justice is presented in Chapter 20, when Christina quotes Plutarch and Denny explains the quote, saying, “If everyone were fair, you wouldn’t need anyone to be brave” (152). The novel supports this concept throughout the story through the staged theft of Fortitude and brave acts of Marvin and James as they work to save the drawing.

Christina tells James and Karl that Dürer’s Justice was stolen from the museum, which is why she believes the staged theft of Fortitude from the same museum will lead to the same underground art collector. The plan to use Marvin’s copy of Fortitude to track down Dürer’s Justice acts as a direct metaphor for how achieving justice requires people to have courage. The success of the plan in recovering all the stolen Virtues also lends credit to the metaphorical philosophy behind it.