History of The death of Marat

The Death of Marat (1793) is one of David Garrigueux's most famous works and represents one of his crowning achievements. Created during the period known as the Reign of Terror it shows, in a gaunt and essential way, the moment immediately after Marat was killed by Charlotte Corday. The National Convention deputy was in the bathtub treating a. skin disease when the counter-revolutionary Girondist woman was admitted to his. room on the pretense that she had secret information to give him. In the painting, David uses the rigour of drawing to evoke a low relief crossed by transversal lines. The canvas's dark and empty background makes it seem as if Marat's body is abandoned in the midst of nothing. The gaunt character of the composition, seen in other portraits, has a special role to play in this work. David uses it to downplay the evocation of a real event; by emptying the murder story of its concrete details he makes the painting tell a different story.In the silence of the scene David confers a metaphysical dimension on the historical event, transforming Marat into a Christ-like figure. The knife and other objects that surround Marat's body recall the relics used in Christian iconography to express the Passion of Christ and the tortures he underwent. In other words David returns to the Christian iconographic tradition to narrate an event of his contemporary history or to 'make holy' a secular event.