1795
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
Aristomenes Mourning the Death of Socrates from the Bewitchment of Meroë (from Book 1 of Apuleius, "The Golden Ass") is a 1795 by Antoine Denis Chaudet, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
This painting shows a man kneeling over another man who just died on the ground. The scene is dim, with moonlight cutting through dark clouds. It’s from a wild Roman novel about magic and bad luck. The kneeling man is telling the story—his friend was killed by a witch after a messy affair. Chaudet was mostly a sculptor, so this painting feels almost like a carved relief. If you like eerie old stories, look up *chiaroscuro*—the way light and shadow play here.
This scene represents the end of a complex episode from the Roman writer Apuleius's (2nd century ad) story The Golden Ass. Aristomenes narrates a tale to the book's main character, Lucius, about a friend named Socrates, whom he meets during his travels. After a disastrous affair with a witch named Meroë, Socrates dies from a wound she inflicts to his throat, and the scene shown here is the moment just after his death. Chaudet is mainly known as a sculptor, but he also designed a number of book illustrations for the most important publisher of the neoclassic period, the Didot firm. Although we…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Antoine-Denis Chaudet (French pronunciation: ; 3 March 1763 – 19 April 1810) was a French sculptor who worked in the neoclassical style. He was born and died in Paris.
See the richer artist page
