When was Jacques-Louis David born?
Jacques-Louis David
The Death of Marat, 1793, became the leading image of the Terror and immortalized both Marat and David in the world of the revolution. This piece stands today as "a moving testimony to what can be achieved when an artist's political convictions are directly manifested in his work".[15]  A political martyr was instantly created as David portrayed Marat with all the marks of the real murder, in a fashion which greatly resembles that of Christ or his disciples.[16] The subject although realistically depicted remains lifeless in a rather supernatural composition. With the surrogate tombstone placed in front of him and the almost holy light cast upon the whole scene; alluding to an out of this world existence.  "Atheists though they were, David and Marat, like so many other fervent social reformers of the modern world, seem to have created a new kind of religion."[17] At the very center of these beliefs, there stood the republic.