Image Courtesy of The Met
Jacques Louis David, The Death of Socrates
The painting I would like to focus on is The Death of Socrates, which is located in Metropolitan Museum of Art. In this painting, the artist Jacques-Louis David focuses on the scene of the final minutes of Socrates’ life. He paints a picture of Socrates’ wife in the background, waving her final goodbyes to her husband. Then, in the room of focus, we see Socrates’ followers with their mouths open and expressions that ask “why?” An observer might notice that they are asking “why?” because Socrates, whose beliefs are right, is, in fact, ready to kill himself. That question of “why?” is still commonly asked today.
For Socrates, it was either confess that he was wrong and questioned the church’s beliefs, or kill himself with a drink. What is so intriguing about Socrates is that he chose death. Socrates had a quality that most long; he was willing to die for what he believed in. This painting really spoke volumes to me because I am envious of that quality. Many people spend their whole lives searching for something to believe in. As of right now, I’m a teenager going into my senior year of high school, so I’m not necessarily sure what to believe in. However, I am confident that I will eventually find something so meaningful and powerful that I will become enamored with it. As Lance Canyon once said, “A weak man urges compromise. ” This is one of my favorite quotes because I truly believe it. Socrates had no intentions of falsifying his beliefs or going against them so he wouldn’t have to die. He took his beliefs to the grave.
When first looking at the painting, I had no idea who was in it or what was involved. I thought it was simply a group of men gathering around a higher power or professor of some sort looking for his guidance. Though that holds some aspect of truth, I then took a closer look at the painting. The details, the facial expressions, and the colors all had a message that I was fortunate enough to recognize. I really learned to appreciate the artist’s ideas. Every small addition to the painting gives it an incredible amount of meaning.
To be completely honest, the main reason that I decided to take a closer look at the painting was because the tour guide instructed us to do so. Had she not, I would be writing about something a lot less meaningful. One could almost feel the emotion that was bestowed upon the painting by Jacques-Louis David. On the left side of the painting, curiously, Plato, a student of Socrates, is sitting in grief, but, oddly enough, he appears to look older than Socrates. This might be because Plato is utterly in shock that the man who shed so much light on his life is going out to rest forever. Plato is so drained and so fatigued from the events taking place and he looks down on the ground as if he has lost hope.
This painting and the historical context just go to show how much emotion and sacrifice was involved in Socrates’ efforts to question the basic values of life, which at the time were the material things and money. According to his students, he focused on doing things for the greater good and being happy. He didn’t focus on objects and the mainstream keys to happiness. He searched for true happiness within his soul and, for a man to question the daily routine of an entire culture and not give in, is an incredible feat in itself. There are few men that would die for their beliefs and settle for compromise but it is a strong man who refuses to do so and take his beliefs with him to the grave.
Michael Bren-Cardali
