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Secondary sourcePainting1660-1690

Socrates and Xanthippe

Jan van Mieris · 1660-1690

A Dutch Golden Age drawing by Jan van Mieris showing the popular anecdote of Socrates' wife Xanthippe drenching him with water.

Depicts a popular anecdote about Socrates' marriage to Xanthippe, showing how his personal life became a subject of later art.

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Pen and grey wash drawing of a street scene: two figures at left look upward at a leafy tree, a seated bearded old man in a robe rests his head on his hand beside a stone well, and a standing man at right in a long cloak looks toward the seated man. A building with arched doorway is at right.
Jan van Mieris, Socrates and Xanthippe, 1660-1690. Groeningemuseum, Bruges.

About this source

What it is

This is a pen and grey wash drawing made between 1660 and 1690 by the Dutch artist Jan van Mieris, held today in the Groeningemuseum. It shows a street scene with a seated bearded old man resting his head on his hand near a well, while other figures look on nearby.

Why it matters

The scene refers to a well-known anecdote about Socrates' difficult marriage to his wife Xanthippe, who was said to have poured water over him in anger. Such stories became popular comic subjects in later European art, showing how Socrates' private life, as much as his philosophy, was retold and reimagined for entertainment long after his death.

Look closer

  • What mood does the artist create through the poses of the figures?
  • Why might this domestic anecdote have appealed to Dutch audiences centuries later?
  • What does this kind of image add to, or leave out of, our understanding of Socrates as a philosopher?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Socrates on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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