Socrates was an ancient Athenian philosopher and widely known as the “founding father of Western philosophy”. He reportedly expressed these ideals and beliefs through oration.
The Death of Socrates painting depicts a gray-walled prison cell with ten men who all appear in anguished emotional states. The central figure of Socrates is sitting on his bed.
David utilized a “muted” color palette in TheDeath of Socrates painting. We see various hues of reds, blues, and golden yellows, which create contrast in cooler and warmer colors.
In The Death of Socrates, we see the smooth surface texture of the paint as well as the implied textures on the soft folds from the clothing, which is contrasted with the hardness of the stone wall and floor.
There are various lines in The Death of Socrates painting; for example, the diagonal line created on the wall by the light source from the left creates emphasis and directs our gaze to the central figure.
There is an interplay of shapes and forms; the figures appear organic and naturalistic in their forms, which contrast with the other more linear and geometric shapes of the prison cell’s rectangular bricks that compose the wall and floor.
David created an emotionally-heightened space by placing the figures in the shallow foreground – the wall behind the figures brings them into the foreground and almost into our, the viewers, space.