mfox17

The Death Of Socrates, 1787
By: Jacques-Louis David

The Death of Socrates masterpiece is one of the few pictures I remember from my elementary history books. I believe this piece stuck with me for so long because of incredible sadness I felt for this amazing historical character. Socrates is depicted in this painting moments before his death. Socrates was sentenced to die for expressing his beliefs despite the fact that they went against the government he lived under. In this scene, he is about to take the poison that he was ordered to take upon his sentencing. This is the first painting I chose to use in my blog on Morality and the Classical Arts due to the message being sent by the artist through his piece. He is showing the absurdity of this death sentence, the government killing one of the greatest minds in history due to him standing up for what he believes in.