Aristomenes Mourning the Death of Socrates from the Bewitchment of Meroë (from Book 1 of Apuleius, "The Golden Ass")

About the Artwork

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 know he did a number of drawings for The Golden Ass, the project was never realized as a book.

Inscriptions

signed, lower left, in black ink: Chaudet del. 1795.; by artist, upper left, in black ink: Apulée, Metam. v.1; by artist, upper right, in black ink: II; by artist, lower center, in black ink: Aristomene pleure Socrate expirant par l'effet des ma= / léfices de Meroé.; upper right, in graphite: A; verso, upper left, in graphite: [buza?] [underlined] / [Nello?]; upper center, in graphite: 123 / b [circled]

Provenance

Probably Marie Joseph François Mahérault; [probably his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris (27-29 May 1880), 9, as part of lot no. 19: "Dix dessins pour illustrer l'Ane d'or d'Apulée. Ces dessins sont d'une remarquable finesse. Signés et datés 1795. Sépia et encre de Chine rehaussées de blanc."]. "A late nineteenth-century French collection" (according to Baskett and Day, London). [Galerie Jacques Fischer-Chantal Kiener, Paris]; purchased in 1986.

Exhibition history

French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001); Dahesh Museum of Art (February 19-May 18, 2002).

Quick Overview

Artist: Antoine-Denis Chaudet (French, 1763–1810)
Date: 1795
Medium: brush and black and gray wash, heightened with white gouache, over graphite
Dimensions: Sheet: 27.9 x 21.3 cm (11 x 8 3/8 in.); Image: 19.8 x 10.3 cm (7 13/16 x 4 1/16 in.)
Type: Drawing
Classification: Drawing
Department: Drawings
Credit line: Bequest of Muriel Butkin
Accession no.: 2008.374

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.