I deserve free meals in the Prytaneum!
Neoclassicism has endured some criticism for its lack of originality, I suppose, but I have always enjoyed it and I have always been a fan of realism. David has long been a favorite artist of mine, particularly his Oath of the Horatii (long before I understood its meaning), the Coronation, and the unforgettable Napoleon Crossing the Alps.
But the Death of Socrates...cannot be described by my limited vocabulary. The range of emotion is touching and astounding. Crito clutches Socrates' knee, eager to continue learning. Apollodorus, reaching to the heavens, cannot even look at his master who willingly reaches for the hemlock. Plato--who wasn't even present for the actual suicide--seems resigned to the fate of his mentor. Anything I could say would only detract from David's painting. One simply has to examine it for himself!
Thomas Jefferson said that of all the works he observed at the Salon in Paris, this was the best. And surely Jefferson had a discerning eye, as we can judge for ourselves by what he has left behind.
"What would one of you give to keep company with Orpheus and Musaeus, Hesiod and Homer [in Hades]? I am willing to die many times if that is true. It would be a wonderful way for me to spend my time whenever I met Palamedes and Ajax, the son of Telamon, and any other of the men of old who died through an unjust conviction, to compare my experience with theirs. I think it would be pleasant. Most important, I could spend my time testing and examining people there, as I do here, as to who among them is wise, and who thinks he is, but is not." (Apology 41a-b)
Here's hoping that you're still an annoying hell-raiser in the afterlife, Socrates.