Death of Marat
The portrait of Marat encapsulates the artist’s grief, political fervour and artistic abilty.
It is a personal homage to his friend, as seen by an inscription on the side of a make shift desk.’ A marat David’
Find brushwork in the corpse.
The artist has striped the painting to its bare essentials in which the artist created a powerful and moving image with a tragic solemnity of the Pieta.
A gruesome subject to depict.
The artist has commorated an event.
Created a portrait of a martyr.
A dying man in a graceful and heroic pose against a stark setting.
In his hand he holds a bloody note.
This reminds us of Michelangelo’s Pieta.
Three quarters of the gray-brown bathtub is covered by a wooden board. The background, shades of gray, is entirely bare.
Warm yellow light further softens the horror of the scene.
Formal Analysis of The Death of Marat
- Orthogonal construction: gift of eternity and no death
- Writing: the way to stop time
- The money: way to understand how Marat helped poor people
- Dark background: death darkness, but Marat survives, though a man dies his public image is eternal. The darkness is behind the protagonist, and we can feel the gaze of Marat!
So (for David) Marat lives forever.
Composition
To understand this artwork there are essentially two aspects to consider: first the style used by David, i.e. Neo-classicism, and secondly the artist’s purpose, i.e. turning Marat into a hero of high moral virtues according to the classical tradition. Neoclassicism as the name says was essentially a rediscovery of classical art from the Greek and Roman time. This style prescribed rigorous contours, sculptured forms, and polished surfaces and was based on ideals of harmony and austerity.
The composition is in fact arranged according to the classical principle of the golden section, a combination of horizontal lines (the bathtub edges, the top of the side table and the ledge where Marta’s head is resting) and vertical lines (the side
It is a personal homage to his friend, as seen by an inscription on the side of a make shift desk.’ A marat David’
Find brushwork in the corpse.
The artist has striped the painting to its bare essentials in which the artist created a powerful and moving image with a tragic solemnity of the Pieta.
A gruesome subject to depict.
The artist has commorated an event.
Created a portrait of a martyr.
A dying man in a graceful and heroic pose against a stark setting.
In his hand he holds a bloody note.
This reminds us of Michelangelo’s Pieta.
Three quarters of the gray-brown bathtub is covered by a wooden board. The background, shades of gray, is entirely bare.
Warm yellow light further softens the horror of the scene.
Formal Analysis of The Death of Marat
- Orthogonal construction: gift of eternity and no death
- Writing: the way to stop time
- The money: way to understand how Marat helped poor people
- Dark background: death darkness, but Marat survives, though a man dies his public image is eternal. The darkness is behind the protagonist, and we can feel the gaze of Marat!
So (for David) Marat lives forever.
Composition
To understand this artwork there are essentially two aspects to consider: first the style used by David, i.e. Neo-classicism, and secondly the artist’s purpose, i.e. turning Marat into a hero of high moral virtues according to the classical tradition. Neoclassicism as the name says was essentially a rediscovery of classical art from the Greek and Roman time. This style prescribed rigorous contours, sculptured forms, and polished surfaces and was based on ideals of harmony and austerity.
The composition is in fact arranged according to the classical principle of the golden section, a combination of horizontal lines (the bathtub edges, the top of the side table and the ledge where Marta’s head is resting) and vertical lines (the side