The Death of Socrates: A Nietzschean Tragic Painting

Above is the painting by Jacques Louis David, called The Death of Socrates. The first time I saw this painting was in April of last year, as an extra credit assignment in my moral philosophy class with professor Kyle Ferguson at Hunter College. The assignment was to take a selfie with the painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

It was painted in 1787, just prior to the French Revolution and just after the American Revolution. Socrates was a figure that gave unfettered inspiration to radical revolutionary philosophers in the mid to late 18th century, such as Thomas Paine and Voltaire -the latter, who wrote a play called Socrates, satirically posed against government authority and organized religion. David himself was a supporter of the French Revolution, and was likely also inspired by Socrates in that respect. Thus illuminating the flaw in Catherine Abell’s essay “What is Art?”, in that, art needn’t be conducive to any institution in order to be deemed “good” art; indeed, much of what is called good art is revolutionary by its very nature.

The painting explicitly illustrates the scene in Plato’s Phaedo, following the Apology of Socrates, whereby he was sentenced to death by hemlock. It is an oil painting on canvas, which if one views in person, will notice the striking detail of the feet of the ancient Athenians, which are veiny, dirty and red, presumably from lack of footwear. Such redness is not apparent with characters who have footwear, such as Plato, who is sitting at the foot of Socrates, bowing in sorrow.

A minor point of contention is inaccuracies displayed in the painting. At the point of Socrates’ death, Socrates was a 71-year-old man. Plato was his pupil and was indeed much younger than him, yet in this painting, he is illustrated as if he was just as old as Socrates. Another inaccuracy is the appearance of Apollodorus, who at the time of Socrates’ death, was sent away by Socrates for displaying too much grief. One shudders to think what that was like, given the hysterical lot standing behind Socrates.