A Cup of Hemlock- The Death of Socrates

                                   A Cup of Hemlock- The Death of Socrates

        

   “The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways- I to die, and you to live. Which is better god only knows.” declared Greek philosopher Socrates to the Athenian authorities after he decided to die. Condemned with misguiding the youths of Athens with his revolutionary philosophy, Socrates was given the choice to exile. But instead, the philosopher wanted to make his death his last lesson, and bravely chose to drink a cup of hemlock and end his own life. Such a dramatic historical event of heroism and sacrifice would of course be a good scene to depict for painters influenced by classicism and 18^th century Academy painters.

   A Cup of Hemlock: the Death of Socrates assembled six rational, yet emotional paintings by painters following the academy style in 18^th century Europe. All the painters depicted their understanding and imagination of the great philosopher’s death, and each evokes slightly different feelings. These paintings overlap in many ways: the cup of hemlock, the mourning figures surrounding Socrates. They are all painted with smooth brushwork, and the colors reflect the artists’ appreciation for classical antiquity. They brilliantly display the emotions of the painting through the maneuver of lighting, color, expression. Impressively, all intense emotions are expressed within the classical and neoclassical rational composition. These five works truly displayed the artists’ ability to combine rationality with emotion and moral height.

 

 Fig.1. Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy, la Mort de Socrate. 1650. Oil on Canvas. 48.03 x 61.02 in. (122 x 155 cm). Galleria degli Uffizi

   French painter and writer Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy is remembered better as a writer. He never achieved prominent fame as a painter. But he did show enthusiasm for classicism that was spreading through Europe in the 17^th century. Here, du Fresnoy puts the figures within a very structured, grey, and linear space, which is the prison. Socrates drinks the cup of Hemlock while watching upward, and other figures closest to him showed grief through their gestures. In the mid ground and back ground people lay on the floor and guards stood underneath a window. Du Fresnoy used smooth brushwork and bright and refined colors for the figure’s clothing. He expressed Socrates’ calmness and his companions’ grief in a very direct way.

Fig.3. Jacques-Philip-Joseph de Saint- Quentin. 1762. Oil on Canvas. 55.1x45.3in (140x115cm). École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts.

  Quentin’s depiction of Socrates’ death clearly reflected the Academy’s preference, dramatic and preferably historical scenes with clear moral lessons behind them. Peyron sets the scene within a prison room. At the center of the drama, Socrates had already drunken the hemlock and the cup lies on the floor. He is dying, and still dismissing the grief of those around him. Like many other Academy painters, Peyron employs smooth brushwork and elegant colors to create a classical atmosphere. He also expertly employed the light streaming from the prison window to centralize the main drama in the painting.

 This depiction included soldiers at the right that are obviously working under the Athenian state, the same government that condemned the philosopher. By doing that, Peyron is stating Socrates’ universal and powerful influence in the Athenian society.

  Fig.1. Jaques- Louis David, the Death of Socrates. 1787. Oil on Canvas. 51 x 77 1/4 in (129.5 x 196.2 cm). Metropolitan Museum of Art.

   Painted for a Salon in 1787 Paris, Jacques- Louis David’s the Death of Socrates is probably the most well-known and exalted painting of Socrates’ death. Publisher John Boydell described the painting as "the most exquisite and admirable effort of art since the Sistine Chapel and the Raphael stanze.”

When his Death of Socrates showed in the Paris Salon, it became an instant favorite at the Salon and was widely admired. David’s exquisite use of composition and smooth brushwork, along with the painting’s clarity and vigor, helped it to defeat all other of its contemporaries on the same topic.

  It is, of course, a powerful neoclassical statement, with attribution to a noble and grand idea. The painting captured a powerful moment. Socrates preaches his philosophy while reaching for the cup and that creates contrast between death and his immortal ideas. Eight other figures surround him, each expressing grief in his own way. The painting is also a sentimental and powerful statement of David’s stand in the Enlightenment ideal. David was a part of the “trudaine society”, a group of Enlightenment and liberal thinkers of eighteenth century France. The painting certainly uplifts the Enlightenment’s rejection of authority and glorification of rationality.

  Fig.2. Jean-François-Pierre Peyron, The Death of Socrates. 1787. Oil on Canvas. 38.6 × 52.6 in (98 x 133 cm). Statens Museum for Kunst.

   Peyron submitted this painting for the same Salon in which David’s Death of Socrates exhibited. It was commissioned by the French king’s Minister for Culture because of Peyron’s reputation in France.

  The painting depicts Socrates before his death, as his raises his hand towards an immortal moral and gives his last speech. The arrangement of the figures and composition of the painting satisfies the Academy standards of the time. It is similar to David’s depiction in many ways, such as Socrate’s raised hand and his bed. However, comparing to David’s dramatic depiction, Peyron’s depiction is more subtle and shadowy. The figures around him also do not express their emotions as dramatically as the figures do in David’s painting. Perhaps with his choice of color and lighting, Peyron focused on the solemn and mourning aspect of Socrate’s departure. But Peyron still tactfully used the lighting to bring out the solemnity and highlight the emotions of the figures.

   For all its brilliance, Peyron’s painting was still defeated by David’s painting, which became an instant favorite at the 1787 Salon. Perhaps Peyron’s depiction is not as direct as David’s, and lacked that powerful glorification for heroism and sacrifice, but it was good enough for the French monarch with its implied condemnation of democratic Athenian state.

  Fig.4. Jean-François-Pierre Peyron, The Death of Socrates. 1788. Oil on Canvas. 39 x 53 ½ in (99.06 x 135.9 cm). Joslyn Art Museum.

   This is the second depiction of the Death of Socrates by Peyron, another outstanding example of Neoclassicism, with its direct moral message, elegant and antique color and structured composition. Perhaps feeling defeated how David’s painting of Socrate’s death outshined his first version of the Death of Socrates, Peyron subsequently painted this second version in the following year.

   In the painting, Socrates grasps the cup of hemlock with his right hand and calms the grief shown by people around him. Comparing to the first painting, the second version used brighter and more intriguing colors. Peyron also refined the lighting to focus viewers’ attention on Socrates. Overall, this version assembles color, lighting, and emotion brilliantly and furthermore exalted Socrates’ heroic choice.

  Fig.5. Giambettino Cignaroli, the Death of Socrates. Second half of Eighteenth- Century. 79.5 x 106.7 in (202 x271 cm). Museum of Fine Arts.

   Giambettino Cignaroli was an important painter following the academy trend in the later 18^th century. Known for his preference for solemn and historical depictions, Cignaroli chose to depict the death of Socrates with a more despairing and dark mood.

   Here, the lighting is relatively dim, and the painting is set in a linear but vague space. The philosopher is no longer heroically giving his last statements, but has already drunken the hemlock and lies dead in a man’s arms. Unlike David’s Socrates, Cignaroli’s Socrates is ashen, gaunt, and very much dead. Surrounding his body, people of all ages mourned. This is perhaps the darkest depiction of Socrates’ death in the series. It lacks that touch of heroism and bravery, but simply lets the viewers to feel the horror of Socrate’s death, and perhaps the horror of an unjust state.