0:00:05.811,0:00:07.569 - [Voiceover] We're in Brussels looking at 0:00:07.569,0:00:10.941 one of Jacques-Louis David's[br]Revolutionary canvases. 0:00:10.941,0:00:12.724 This is "The Death of Morat". 0:00:12.724,0:00:14.721 - [Voiceover] Revolutionary in two senses. 0:00:14.721,0:00:16.711 Revolutionary in that it was painted 0:00:16.711,0:00:20.723 during the French Revolution,[br]which started in 1789. 0:00:20.723,0:00:24.066 France was made a republic in 1792. 0:00:24.066,0:00:27.584 And David here commemorates[br]a hero of the Revolution. 0:00:27.584,0:00:30.243 But it's also revolutionary[br]in that it's depicting 0:00:30.243,0:00:32.228 a contemporary event. 0:00:32.228,0:00:33.865 Before this David had painted 0:00:33.865,0:00:35.920 scenes from classical antiquity. 0:00:35.920,0:00:37.135 - [Voiceover] Early on in the Revolution, 0:00:37.135,0:00:39.224 David had joined the Jacobin Club. 0:00:39.224,0:00:40.920 This was a group of the most 0:00:40.920,0:00:42.688 violent and radical revolutionaries. 0:00:42.688,0:00:45.126 And David himself became quite close 0:00:45.126,0:00:47.645 with the leader of the[br]Jacobins, Robespierre. 0:00:47.645,0:00:49.584 - [Voiceover] David[br]voted for the beheading 0:00:49.584,0:00:51.325 of King Louis XVI. 0:00:51.325,0:00:54.344 His signature is on documents created 0:00:54.344,0:00:58.457 for the arrest and execution[br]of members of the aristocracy, 0:00:58.457,0:01:00.404 of people who were against the Revolution. 0:01:00.404,0:01:03.283 So David was really in the thick of it. 0:01:03.283,0:01:06.072 He served in the Revolutionary government. 0:01:06.072,0:01:08.700 He helped to dissolve the[br]Royal Academy of the Arts. 0:01:08.700,0:01:11.700 And he was essentially the[br]Minister of Propaganda, 0:01:11.700,0:01:14.358 spreading the ideals of the[br]Revolution through images. 0:01:14.358,0:01:15.438 - [Voiceover] And that's what this is. 0:01:15.438,0:01:17.481 The Revolutionary government[br]asked him to produce 0:01:17.481,0:01:19.374 a series of three images that would 0:01:19.374,0:01:21.730 heroicize new martyrs. 0:01:21.730,0:01:22.949 Not a Christian martyr, 0:01:22.949,0:01:25.213 but now a martyr to the Revolution. 0:01:25.213,0:01:27.872 - [Voiceover] This shift[br]from Christian martyr 0:01:27.872,0:01:30.716 to political martyr is an important one. 0:01:30.716,0:01:32.936 We have the beginnings of the end 0:01:32.936,0:01:34.841 of the world of the monarchy, 0:01:34.841,0:01:36.312 of the the "ancien régime", 0:01:36.312,0:01:38.251 of an absolutist ruler, 0:01:38.251,0:01:40.851 and the beginnings of a new republic. 0:01:40.851,0:01:43.072 The beginnings of a world where the people 0:01:43.072,0:01:44.914 participate in the government. 0:01:44.914,0:01:46.516 - [Voiceover] The French[br]Revolution had been inspired, 0:01:46.516,0:01:48.386 at least in part, by[br]the American Revolution 0:01:48.386,0:01:50.115 just a few years earlier. 0:01:50.115,0:01:52.135 But France would oscillate between 0:01:52.135,0:01:53.914 republican and royalist governments 0:01:53.914,0:01:55.049 over the next century. 0:01:55.049,0:01:57.708 - [Voiceover] A royalist[br]named Charlotte Corday, 0:01:57.708,0:01:59.693 a woman who believed in the monarchy 0:01:59.693,0:02:02.371 of absolutist rule, went to see 0:02:02.371,0:02:04.843 Marat, the leader of the Revolution. 0:02:04.843,0:02:08.011 And by tricking him,[br]murdered him in his bathtub. 0:02:08.011,0:02:09.300 - [Voiceover] You can see[br]the knife which she used 0:02:09.300,0:02:12.586 to stab him lying on the bottom[br]left corner of the canvas. 0:02:12.586,0:02:15.100 And the letter that she[br]used to gain entrance 0:02:15.100,0:02:16.212 being held by Marat. 0:02:16.212,0:02:18.390 He was a publisher, so his role 0:02:18.390,0:02:19.669 in the Revolution was important, 0:02:19.669,0:02:22.582 because he helped to[br]disseminate revolutionary ideas 0:02:22.582,0:02:23.882 and to rally the people. 0:02:23.882,0:02:25.851 - [Voiceover] He holds[br]this letter that she used 0:02:25.851,0:02:27.469 to get in to see him. 0:02:27.469,0:02:30.569 David is showing, look at how[br]duplicitous this woman was. 0:02:30.569,0:02:33.205 She tricked Marat, he was[br]innocent, he was good. 0:02:33.205,0:02:36.297 He was working for the republic,[br]for the French Revolution. 0:02:36.297,0:02:38.616 And she came in and brutally stabbed him. 0:02:38.616,0:02:39.808 - [Voiceover] There is[br]this extreme contrast 0:02:39.808,0:02:42.598 between her duplicity and his nobility. 0:02:42.598,0:02:43.845 - [Voiceover] He's ideally beautiful. 0:02:43.845,0:02:46.719 We know that he was[br]disfigured by the skin disease 0:02:46.719,0:02:49.575 that caused him to spend many[br]hours of each day in the bath. 0:02:49.575,0:02:51.537 You have no sign of that here. 0:02:51.537,0:02:53.917 - [Voiceover] And his pose[br]reminds us of the Pietà, 0:02:53.917,0:02:56.477 of the image of Christ being mourned 0:02:56.477,0:02:58.979 having just been taken[br]down from the cross. 0:02:58.979,0:03:01.231 So the idea that a[br]martyr to the Revolution 0:03:01.231,0:03:03.744 is replacing the central Christian martyr 0:03:03.744,0:03:05.271 is vividly rendered. 0:03:05.271,0:03:07.408 - [Voiceover] That was a[br]key idea of the Revolution. 0:03:07.408,0:03:10.288 To dismantle, not only the monarchy, 0:03:10.288,0:03:11.929 but the church as well. 0:03:11.929,0:03:14.567 And to secularize French life. 0:03:14.567,0:03:16.680 And we see that also in the creation 0:03:16.680,0:03:19.156 of a new calendar for the Revolution. 0:03:19.156,0:03:23.510 And below the signature,[br]David has written "Year Two". 0:03:23.510,0:03:27.852 So we're not in 1793, we're[br]in Year Two of the Revolution. 0:03:28.144,0:03:31.193 This whole replacing of the old world 0:03:31.193,0:03:33.565 with a new Revolutionary order 0:03:33.565,0:03:35.368 for a new French republic. 0:03:35.368,0:03:37.116 - [Voiceover] The idea[br]of rationalism was being 0:03:37.116,0:03:38.695 violently instituted. 0:03:38.695,0:03:41.622 Instead of the older, traditional[br]measurements for example, 0:03:41.622,0:03:43.849 this is when we first[br]have the more rational 0:03:43.849,0:03:45.591 metric system being introduced. 0:03:45.591,0:03:46.885 - [Voiceover] This is the Enlightenment, 0:03:46.885,0:03:49.344 this is a time of rational thinking, 0:03:49.344,0:03:52.469 of believing in empirical observation over 0:03:52.469,0:03:55.296 the superstitions and[br]traditions of the church. 0:03:55.296,0:03:56.155 - [Voiceover] And this is a painting 0:03:56.155,0:03:57.769 that is all about observations. 0:03:57.769,0:03:59.937 This really interesting contrast between 0:03:59.937,0:04:02.266 the specificity of the foreground, 0:04:02.266,0:04:05.162 especially the crate on[br]which he's written his name, 0:04:05.162,0:04:07.416 and written "Á Marat", "To Marat". 0:04:07.416,0:04:11.038 Against the indeterminate, open brushwork 0:04:11.038,0:04:13.955 of the background that[br]almost doesn't look finished. 0:04:13.955,0:04:17.435 It's got this soft,[br]feathery, warm quality. 0:04:17.435,0:04:19.107 - [Voiceover] It isolates Marat, 0:04:19.107,0:04:21.789 it focuses our attention on him. 0:04:21.789,0:04:22.787 - [Voiceover] But as we look around 0:04:22.787,0:04:24.517 at other paintings in this museum, 0:04:24.517,0:04:26.247 what I see in the upper part 0:04:26.247,0:04:27.791 of a painting are angels. 0:04:27.791,0:04:29.930 And David can't have that anymore. 0:04:29.930,0:04:32.992 And a new iconography[br]has not yet developed. 0:04:32.992,0:04:35.759 So instead what we have is a lighter field 0:04:35.759,0:04:36.978 in the upper right corner 0:04:36.978,0:04:40.306 balancing Marat's body[br]in the lower left corner. 0:04:40.306,0:04:41.239 - [Voiceover] And what a body. 0:04:41.239,0:04:44.033 The anatomy, the muscles in the shoulder 0:04:44.033,0:04:46.273 and the arms and the collarbone. 0:04:46.273,0:04:48.688 We can see that neoclassical interest 0:04:48.688,0:04:50.779 in studying the anatomy, 0:04:50.779,0:04:52.495 painting it very carefully, 0:04:52.495,0:04:54.470 paying a lot of attention to contours, 0:04:54.470,0:04:56.710 modelling in the effects[br]of light and dark. 0:04:56.710,0:04:59.972 But what strikes me is the spareness. 0:04:59.972,0:05:04.465 In direct contrast to[br]the luxurious interiors 0:05:04.465,0:05:07.890 of Rococo paintings of the lifestyle 0:05:07.890,0:05:10.049 of the aristocracy, which was the subject 0:05:10.049,0:05:11.535 of Rococo paintings. 0:05:11.535,0:05:15.565 Here, a decidedly stark interior, 0:05:15.565,0:05:19.091 Spartan, no elaborate furniture, no gold. 0:05:19.091,0:05:21.363 This is a man, David wants to tell us, 0:05:21.363,0:05:23.854 lived according to the republican ideals 0:05:23.854,0:05:25.153 of the Revolution. 0:05:25.153,0:05:27.649 - [Voiceover] And it looks[br]like they will endure forever. 0:05:27.649,0:05:30.470 But soon the Revolutionaries[br]will turn against each other. 0:05:30.470,0:05:32.234 - [Voiceover] And David is imprisoned 0:05:32.234,0:05:33.926 for his involvement in the Revolution. 0:05:33.926,0:05:37.195 And then becomes First[br]Painter to Napoleon, 0:05:37.195,0:05:39.468 who becomes the Emperor of France. 0:05:39.468,0:05:40.732 And so a lot of art historians 0:05:40.732,0:05:42.486 look at David's career and say, 0:05:42.486,0:05:45.830 "Where were his actual principles?" 0:05:45.830,0:05:47.188 - [Voiceover] Where were his loyalties? 0:05:47.188,0:05:48.871 - [Voiceover] Did he truly believe 0:05:48.871,0:05:50.624 in the ideals of the Revolution? 0:05:50.624,0:05:53.712 And then become a follower of Napoleon 0:05:53.712,0:05:55.813 and abandon those values? 0:05:55.813,0:05:57.531 - [Voiceover] Or was he[br]politically mercenary? 0:05:57.531,0:05:59.968 Was he really looking for 0:05:59.968,0:06:02.118 commissions from whoever was in control 0:06:02.118,0:06:03.220 at that moment? 0:06:03.220,0:06:05.136 It's hard to look at "The Death of Marat" 0:06:05.136,0:06:07.318 and not see a man who was convinced 0:06:07.318,0:06:10.254 of the importance of Revolutionary ideals.