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The Death of Socrates - Jacques Louis David - Oil Painting is part of our hand painted oil painting collection from the Various Artists selection. Each canvas is worked by a trained artist, then inspected before dispatch — a practical route to owning refined wall decor at a fraction of gallery pricing.
1787
Oil on canvas
51 x 77 1/4 in. (129.5 x 196.2 cm)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States.
This happened at a Greek prison near the Agora market place in Athens about 2500 years ago. The Agora market place is now a park, located at the foot of the Acropolis Hill in Athens. The Parthenon Temple is seen at the top of the Hill.
The Athenian courts executed the philosopher Socrates (469–399 B.C.) for the crime of impiety: his behavior toward the gods was judged to have been irreverent, and he had exerted a corrupting influence on his young male followers. Socrates declined to renounce his beliefs and died willingly, discoursing on the immortality of the soul before drinking from the cup of poisonous hemlock. The Phaedo of Plato was David’s principal source. In a prison of unrelieved severity, he depicted a frieze of carefully articulated figures in antique costume acting out in the language of gesture the last moments of the moral philosopher’s life. Because, shortly before the onset of the French revolution, the painting gave expression to the principle of resisting unjust authority, it is among David’s most important works.
The canvas is arguably the artist’s most perfect statement of the Neoclassical style. The publisher John Boydell saw it at the 1787 Paris Salon, and later wrote to Sir Joshua Reynolds that it was “the greatest effort of art since the Sistine Chapel and the stanze (rooms) of Raphael.”
The fine art subject is rebuilt stroke by stroke in oil, giving the finished canvas the depth expected of refined oil painting wall decor.
Materials matter for refined wall decor. That is why this piece is built on artist-grade canvas with lightfast oil colors, applied by hand rather than output from a printer, and sealed for long-term display.
Style it over a fireplace, behind a reading chair, or along a staircase. Wherever it goes, this refined oil painting wall decor adds the layered color that only a hand painted canvas provides.
| Size | Price |
|---|---|
| 30 X 40 in | $368.48 |
| 36 X 48 in | $509.48 |
| 48 X 72 in | $914.98 |
The sizes shown are the reproduction canvas sizes we paint to order. The dimensions given in a work's description refer to the original artwork and will differ from the sizes offered here. Not sure? Read the size guide or e-mail us.
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Every canvas is painted by hand in oils on artist-grade stretched canvas, with an extra blank border left for framing. How to care for your painting.
Measurements are on the size guide, or e-mail [email protected] and we reply within one business day.
