The Death of Socrates by Jacques Louis David

by Carlos Diaz

Title

The Death of Socrates by Jacques Louis David

Artist

Carlos Diaz

Medium

Photograph - Photographs

Description

David, The Death of Socrates - Remastered by Carlos Diaz

1787
Jacques Louis David French

In this landmark of Neoclassical painting from the years immediately preceding the French Revolution, David took up a classical story of resisting unjust authority in a sparse, frieze-like composition. The Greek philosopher Socrates (469–399 B.C.) was convicted of impiety by the Athenian courts; rather than renounce his beliefs, he died willingly, discoursing on the immortality of the soul before drinking poisonous hemlock. Through a network of carefully articulated gestures and expressions, David’s figures act out the last moments of Socrates’s life. He is about to grasp the cup of hemlock, offered by a disciple who cannot bear to witness the act. David consulted antiquarian scholars in his pursuit of an archeologically exacting image, including details of furniture and clothing; his inclusion of Plato at the foot of the bed, however, deliberately references not someone present at Socrates’s death but, rather, the author whose text, Phaedo, had preserved this ancient story into modern times.

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June 10th, 2021

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