Oil on Canvas, 65" x 50 3/8"
1793
Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts at Brussels
The Death of Marat (French: La Mort de Marat ) is a 1793 painting in the Neoclassic style by Jacques-Louis David, it is one of the most famous images of the French Revolution. This work refers to the assassination of radical journalist Jean-Paul Marat, killed on the 13th of July 1793 by Charlotte Corday, a French Revolutionary figure from a minor aristocratic family. Corday, who blamed Marat for the September Massacres and feared an all out civil war, claimed "I killed one man to save 100,000."
Just thought I would post this image and a bit of basic information from Wikipedia (because I know how much tutors love Wikipedia) just so everyone knows what we are meant to be writing about.
Possible avenues for research:
ReplyDeleteother political assassinations, historically and in modern times
skin in art (Marat was bathing because of a skin condition. Grunewald's Issenheim Altarpiece might be a good starting point if you look at this idea)
the question of to what the painting is neoclassical or romantic.
I'm sure there are other avenues you could go down, with this as a starting point..!
By the way, I think wikipedia is very useful as a research tool, but as a starting point (and not to be quoted from in essays, or relied on too heavily!)