How you can use this image
Public Domain
This image has been assigned a Public Domain Mark and is free to use with unrestricted use.
Please acknowledge the Collection who own the work with a photo credit — this helps spread the word about their resources.
To learn more about images and rights, please see our image use page.
DownloadNotes
Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.
The figures are similar to those in a painting of Diogenes and Alexander attributed to G. B. Langetti in the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice. The face of the philospher is also similar to a painting of Hagar and the angel attributed to Johann Carl Loth and offered for sale at Sotheby's, Monaco, 15–16 June 1990, lot 342. The story circulated in antiquity that the philosopher Aristotle was indicted for impiety and required to follow the example of Socrates by committing suicide, but that he refused to drink the hemlock and fled instead to Chalcis with the remark that he 'would not give the Athenians a second chance to sin against philosophy'. This is assumed to be the subject of the present picture, though no other painting of the subject has been identified.
Title
Aristotle Refusing the Hemlock (?)
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 114.5 x W 114.5 cm
Accession number
45519i
Acquisition method
purchased by Henry S. Wellcome, c.1900–1936
Work type
Painting
