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Socrates Crito Comparison Essay

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The painting The Death of Socrates by David and the written text “The Death of Socrates: Crito” by Plato generate a wide variety of emotions. The portrayal of Socrates’ strength and peacefulness is consistent in both pieces. One of the most important differences is that in the painting, Socrates is made to look much healthier, and more chiseled. At the time of his death, Socrates was approximately seventy years old. David wanted him to represent the youthful strength, zeal, and fearlessness of the republican movement on the eve of the French Revolution. Surrounded by his grieving students and followers, Socrates is accepting his death with open arms. Sitting to Socrates’ immediate left, is Crito, desperately grasping at the leg of his friend. …show more content…

His executioner turns his gaze away from Socrates, while he is handing the cup of poison to him. Even though he is about to die, he continues to teach until his last moments of life. Socrates seems to be speaking about the immortality of the soul while pointing to the heavens, where the souls of the morally good were intended to rest. The most significant change between Socrates’ actual death and this painting, is the incorporation of Plato. He is sitting at the foot of the bed, detached from the scene. Plato wasn’t even present at the death of Socrates, but apparently David thought it important to include him in the scene. Plato was 29 at the time of Socrates’ death, so why is he so old in the painting? Some believe that this was all apart of Plato’s idealized memory, in which the moment is seized and gives way to the extent of time and existence. David takes the original number of people present at Socrates execution, and minimizes it to 12, to reverberate the number of disciples in the painting “The Last Supper” by DaVinci. The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David is a ageless work of art. The detail, colors, and symmetry all point to an extremely talented

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