The Death of Socrates, La Mort de Socrate, 1787 Poster

Jacques-Louis David - The Death of Socrates, La Mort de Socrate, 1787. Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in taste away from Rococo frivolity towards classical austerity, severity, and heightened feeling, which harmonised with the moral climate of the final years of the Ancien Regime. In this story, Socrates has been convicted of corrupting the youth of Athens and introducing strange gods, and has been sentenced to die by drinking poison hemlock. Socrates uses his death as a final lesson for his pupils rather than fleeing when the opportunity arises, and faces it calmly. The Phaedo depicts the death of Socrates and is also Plato's fourth and last dialogue to detail the philosopher's final days, which is also detailed in Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito.