The Death of Socrates

This painting depicts the last moments of Socrates life. Socrates was given the options of going into exile and therefore ending his philosophical career, or to death by hemlock. Socrates decided to go with the death option and was condemned to death for corrupting the youth and expressing ideas that were contradictory to those of Athens at the time. In the 1780’s, when this painting was painted, Jacques-Luis David was only painting historical paintings. He was so fascinated with how strong and calm Socrates was with his teachings. So he painted him with those same characteristics.

In the Death of Socrates, I see Socrates portrayed as half naked with nine people surrounding him. Each of the nine followers of Socrates contains a different facial expression, all of which is showing sadness and restraint from balling out in tears. One of them on the left in the orange is touching Socrates and looks as if he is saying to him that he does not need to do this and that there is another way. Socrates himself is holding up one finger towards the heavens saying that he must go through with it and looks very determined to drink the hemlock and does not look at all scared of death. Socrates was a noble man and even though he could have run away, he said because he says that it is against the social contract you make with a state to leave once convicted in that state. That action shows us how loyal he was to the state, one accomplishment that his words cannot.

Speechless

Shirin Neshat’s photographs are for her own personal grief, anxiety and the pain of separation from her home country. At a young age, she was enrolled in a boarding school and found it very cold and hostile. She then went to the United States for college. After being in the United States for many years, she returned to Iran and found it a much different place then she remembers. Because of this she started her first artistic series, The Women of Allah. Through her artwork she exemplifies what she believes to be wrong in her native country. She started as neutral to Islam but as time progressed and the Islamic regime of Iran became more oppressive, Neshat's artwork became more politically critical against it. Her piece, Speechless, shows her opinion on how women are mistreated in Iran and how she wants to change it.

In this photograph, a woman has a gun coming out of her hair as if she is trying to hide it yet still wants it to be noticed. She also has writing on her skin which makes me feel as if she has a lot to say but for some reason is not willing or allowed to say it. It makes me feel that the artist is telling us that this woman is who is not allowed to speak, has found a way to express her emotions with either her actions or just the way she looks at you. It makes me believe that her ideas are being heard just by looking at her. The woman’s facial expression is a little depressed or sad while still containing determination in it. Her eyes look as if she is about to start crying. However, her lips are together and have a slight grin on the end of them. I interpret this as if she is saying that she is about to do something that someone is not going to approve of, but she believes it to be the right thing and is determined to see it through.

The Death of Marat

The Death of Marat was painted by Jacques-Louis David in 1793 in memory of his friend Marat. Marat was a radical journalist that was in support with the French Revolution. He supported the sans-culottes heavily and was killed by Charlotte Corday on the 13^th of July 1793 because of it. Corday said that she was saving 100,000 lives by killing one. David was a close friend of Marat’s and intentionally left out one physical defect that Marat had. For one, Marat had a terrible skin condition, which is not present in the painting, in which he would get violent itching and the only remedy would be a cold bath. Another detail left out was that the knife that killed him was left in his body in the real murder yet David puts the knife on the side of the tub. All the other details of the painting are correct though; the green rug, the bath tub, the paper in his hand, and the pen in his other hand.

In the Death of Marat, I see Marat in a bath tub next to a bloody rug with a note in his hand. By leaving out Marat’s skin condition, David made Marat a more connectable person to an average person. If you saw a picture of someone dead with a terrible skin condition, then you could not relate to that person unless you to had a terrible skin condition. Jacques-Louis David leaves this detail out so that one gets a more personal message from the painting. David is putting an emotion of sympathy in your mind through this painting which in turn would have helped spread Marat’s ideas which were the reason he was assassinated. It is a friend helping a dying man’s last wish through the action of painting this.