David (Death of Socrates)
David, Death of Socrates, 1787 (Metropolitan Museum of Art) [11:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Downloadthe most exquisite and admirable effort of art that has appeared since the Cappella Sistina and the Stanze of Raphael. The picture would have done honour to Athens in the age of Pericles
–Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Two years after the Oath of the Horatii was exhibited and only two years before the revolution Charles-Michel Trudaine de la Sablière commissioned David to produce the Death of Socrates, 1787, o/c (Metropolitan Museum of Art). Every bit as sharp and rational as the Oath, the Death of Socrates is an excellent example of the subtle way that David was able to call for the democratic ideals of the Enlightenment. Here, the ancient philosopher sits, brightly illuminated, surrounded by twelve figures (followers in the foreground and family retreating up the stairs in the back). The emotions of each figure are expressed through a dizzying variety of gestures. As you may remember if you have ever read Plato (who, by the way, was Socrates’ most famous pupil and is pictured here as the seated figure calmly accepting his teacher’s fate at the foot of the bed), Socrates was tried and found guilty of the crime of corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens. His sentence was severe although he was given a choice. He could be executed or he could renounce his teachings and be banished (the Greeks considered banishment a very terrible punishment as they thought all other peoples barbarians). David depicts Socrates accepting a kylix (clay cup) of poison hemlock even as he expresses his faith in his search for truth (note the upward motion of his left hand). David depicts Socrates as a martyr, drawing of the composition and iconography of Leonardo’s famous fresco, The Last Supper. But while Leonardo’s Christ sacrifices himself for spiritual reasons, David’s philosopher sacrifices himself to the pursuit of secular truth, an ideal martyr for this, the Age of Enlightenment. Unlike the paintings of the Rococo, David’s images celebrate physical sacrifice in the service of an ideal, what a distance from the sensuous extravagances that the ancien regime had come to expect.
By early July 1789 it was apparent that the nation was in crisis. Louis XVI called an Estates General at his palace at Versailles in order to seek solutions. The ruling estates were represented (the nobility and the high Church) and of course the King. But while these entities ruled France, according to the political reformers of the day, mostly minor nobles like David and lower clergy, the ruling estates and the monarchy did not speak for the vast majority of the people. Thus a group of reformers traveled to Versailles as the uninvited representatives of the third estate. They were of course bared from the proceedings and ordered to disband. Instead, they took refuge in the royal tennis court of all places and there took an oath refusing to submit to the royal decree to disband until their collective voice was heard. Tradition tells us that the oath of the tennis court (soon after the subject of an enormous but unfinished canvas by David) was taken with arms outstretched in a conscious reflection of David’s painting, the Oath of the Horatii. In any case, when word got back to Paris of this initial act of rebellion, more radical elements were emboldened to take up arms. The Bastille, a prison that held some political prisoners was their first target and the revolution was begun.
