The Death of Seneca - 2
The Death of Seneca, 1773, Jacques-Louis David
This painting seems to be more intent on offering enticing elements to the eye rather than capturing the agony of that ordered attempt at suicide. I prefer the Luca Giordano version to this one.
Alain De Botton in his book The Consolations of Philosophy writes:
This painting seems to be more intent on offering enticing elements to the eye rather than capturing the agony of that ordered attempt at suicide. I prefer the Luca Giordano version to this one.
Alain De Botton in his book The Consolations of Philosophy writes:
David's rococo version of the scene was not the first, nor the finest. Seneca appeared more like a reclining pasha than a dying philosopher. Paulina, thrusting her bared right breast forward, was dressed for grand opera rather than Imperial Rome. Yet David's rendering of the moment fitted, however clumsily, into a lengthy history of admiration for the manner in which the Roman endured his appalling fate.
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