Oil on canvas; 130 x 196 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY.
This historical painting by the great neo-classical French painter David typifies the Enlightenment. In an aesthetic of proportion and balance Socrates is asking the great question — Is there anything after death? — which he pursues with an equanimity belying the situation. Yet for his weeping comrades, there is no denying that something is indeed ending.