The Death of Socrates

One hand points upward. The other reaches toward the cup. Between those two gestures, the Greek philosopher Socrates continues speaking as he prepares to drink hemlock. Around him, companions cover their faces, lean closer or turn away. The young man offering the cup can barely look at him. Jacques Louis David painted The Death of Socrates in 1787, shortly before the French Revolution. He arranged the ancient story as a clear, concentrated drama about conviction and resistance to authority. The bare stone room, straight bed and sharply outlined bodies keep the gestures easy to follow. Socrates sits upright at the center of other people’s distress. The older man seated at the foot of the bed is Plato, whose dialogue Phaedo tells the story of Socrates’s death. David includes him as the author who passed the account on, rather than as a claim that he witnessed this scene. Look at how his still, lowered head differs from the raised arms farther right. David has gathered different responses around the cup, which Socrates has yet to take.