Arranging the Picture
Jacques Louis David
The Death of Socrates
1787
Oil on canvas, 129.5 × 196.2 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The figures spread left and right along the couch in a flat band the Met calls "friezelike" and "planar horizontal."
- Against that calm horizontal, Socrates' raised arm points upward.
- His other hand reaches for the cup of hemlock.
- The disciple handing it to him turns away, unable to look.
- Plato sits at the foot of the bed, closing the line at left.
Concepts
Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York · Public Domain (Met Open Access)