The portrait of Marat encapsulates the artist’s grief, political fervor, and artistic ability. It is a personal homage to his friend, as seen by an inscription on the side of a makeshift desk: A Marat David.” The brushwork in the corpse is striking. The artist has stripped the painting to its bare essentials, creating a powerful and moving image with the tragic solemnity of the Pieta. It is gruesome subject matter to depict, but the artist has commemorated an event and 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 which reminds us of Michelangelo’s Pieta. The bathtub is mostly covered by a wooden board that is gray-brown in color. The background is entirely bare and consists of shades of gray. Warm yellow light softens the horror of the scene further. The formal analysis of The Death of Marat reveals its orthogonal construction as a gift of eternity with no death involved. Writing serves as a way to stop time, while money helps us understand how Marat helped poor people. Despite the dark background representing death and darkness, Marat survives, and even though he dies, his public image remains eternal.
The protagonist is now in front of us, and we can feel Marat’s gaze. This means that Marat lives forever for David. To understand this artwork, we need to consider two aspects: the style used by David, which is Neoclassicism, and the artist’s purpose of turning Marat into a hero with high moral virtues according to classical tradition. Neoclassicism was a rediscovery of classical art from Greek and Roman times.
This style prescribes rigorous contours, sculptured forms, and polished surfaces based on ideals of harmony and austerity. The composition is arranged according to the classical principle of the golden section, which combines horizontal lines (the edges of the bathtub, the top of the side table, and the ledge where Marta’s head rests) with vertical lines (the side table, folds of white cloth, and an imaginary line passing through Marat’s nose down his right arm continuing in a fold just under his elbow).
Horizontal lines suggest a feeling of rest or repose because objects parallel to the earth are at rest. The quill pen and inkwell symbolize Marat’s work as a journalist, while on the paper he is holding, there is the date of his death and the name of his murderer. Obviously, these last two details are David’s additions to support his propaganda. Despite being based on an actual event, David has carefully planned the scene. This painting is not concerned with realism; it is not meant to be a snapshot of how things went.
David presents us with a carefully staged death, much like a theatrical performance. Rather than focusing on the perfect perspective of a room, David idealizes Marat by reducing the sense of space to a minimum. The artwork is quite large, measuring 162cm x 128cm, as it was intended to be an official commemorative painting. Marat suffered from a skin condition and could only find relief by lying in his bath where he also worked. Therefore, the scene is set in Marat’s bathroom.
However, the room painted by David has nothing of a real bathroom. We can only see a bathtub and we do not know what is in the rest of the room because there is no door or window. The back wall is empty and blocks the viewer’s eyes, forcing them to focus on Marat in the foreground. Linear perspective is reduced to a minimum, as seen in the representation of the tub which obviously needs to have a certain depth to host Marat’s body. However, Marat’s body shows no sign of his skin condition as David wanted to idealize his subject.
Marat is depicted in a classical position, with his right arm and head facing opposite directions. This pose is reminiscent of Jesus’ position in Van der Weyden’s Descent from the Cross” (pictured below). Although Marat is realistically portrayed, he appears lifeless in a supernatural and monumental composition. Even David’s signature and dedication to Marat are engraved on the stone, typical of monuments. Marat’s body is partially illuminated by light coming from the left, as evidenced by the shadows on his torso and the shadow cast by the paper he holds.
It is impossible to determine the source of this light. Rather than natural light, it represents a divine illumination upon a martyr. The body is depicted as a solid and detailed form, with visible muscles. The right arm is painted with careful modulation of color hues, made possible by the use of oil paintings in this case. The back part of the right arm is fully illuminated while it becomes brownish towards the right where there’s no light, suggesting roundness in form. For Marat’s outline, color was more important than colors.
The scene is carefully drawn in sober tones, with the more brilliant colors being the white of the cloths, the green of the bathtub top, and the yellow-brown of the side table. Despite being a murder scene, there is only a tiny splash of red to represent blood as the painting was not meant to be dramatic or gruesome. The colors are quite saturated, adding solid consistency to surfaces. Marat’s body could well be made of marble, with the bathtub metaphorically representing a stone grave.
Source: http://www.pbs.org/powerofart
The Chart Activity Sheet includes information on the composition, color/shade, light, and iconography of the painting. The painting features detailed realism with an expansive barren background dominating the top half and Marat occupying the lower half with his limp arms stressing and balancing sharp horizontal and vertical planes. On the viewer’s left side, there is softness in the forms of cloth and flesh that contrasts but balances with the hardness of a covered board and wooden table on the right side. The muted colors of browns, greens, and grey-yellow combine to create a sober atmosphere.
Stark contrasts of light and shade are present throughout the composition. These overall contrasts add to the tragic nature of the image. Clear light bathes Marat’s peaceful face, while his unclothed body has associations with the unclothed renditions of heroes from classical mythology and history. The use of pen and ink represents Marat as a thinker and leader of the Revolution. His peaceful face, with closed eyes and a sweet subtle smile, portrays Marat as pure, noble or even saint-like. Finally, the wooden box represents Marat as a man of the common people.
The barren background represents the great loss of Marat for the French people. A knife on the floor and the petition in Marat’s hand represent the deceitful actions of his murderer. The scene, as painted by David, shows Marat dying: his eyelids droop, his head weighs heavily on his shoulder, and his right arm slides to the ground. Despite this portrayal of death, Marat’s body is that of a healthy man still young. The painting inevitably brings to mind a rendering of “The Descent from the Cross”. Although Marat’s face is marked by suffering, it is also gentle and suffused with peacefulness as death loosens its grip.
David has surrounded Marat with details borrowed from his subject’s world including a knife and Charlotte Corday’s petition in an attempt to suggest both victim’s simplicity and grandeur as well as highlight the perfidy of Corday’s actions. The objects such as the petition (“My great unhappiness gives me a right to your kindness”), an assignat intended for some poor unfortunate (“you will give this assignat to that mother of five children whose husband died in defense of their country”), makeshift writing-tables, and mended sheets are means by which David discreetly bears witness to both admiration and indignation.
The face, body, and objects are suffused with clear light which falls softer on victim’s features but harsher on Corday’s petition; David leaves everything else in shadow. This sober yet subtle interplay between elements can be seen perfectly harmonized with drawing; it blends compassion with outrage felt at sight of victim by David. The painting was presented to Coinvention on 15 November 1793.
Upon its creation, the portrait immediately became the object of extravagant praise. One critic claimed that “the face expresses a supreme kindness and an exemplary revolutionary spirit carried to the point of sacrifice.”
The portrait of Marat is stark and uncompromising. The background is black, emphasizing the dying figure which appears to be lit by a spotlight. A warm light falls on Marat’s face and shoulders, infusing him with sympathy and a halo-like glow. In contrast, a harsher, almost clinical light shines on Corday’s letter; possibly signifying the artist’s judgment of the murderer.
David painted Marat with reverence, evident in the dying man’s relaxed facial features and his right arm drifting towards the ground. Only his hands retain tension: the left holds Corday’s letter, while the right grasps his pen. The bloodied knife lies on the floor, partially obscured by shadow. However, the pen catches light and forms a strong vertical axis, suggesting its might over the sword. Marat’s posture strongly recalls Christ’s descent from the cross.
