《马拉之死》是法国新古典主义画派奠基人雅克·路易·大卫于1793年创作的画布油画，现收藏于比利时皇家美术馆。
《马拉之死》刻意营造了一个属于穷人的空间。在封闭狭小的陋室里，马拉倒在浴缸中，一手握着笔，一手握着染了鲜血的信，油画的上半部笔触松散凌乱，可能是一面墙，也可能只是含糊不明的空间，代表着永恒的虚无，但那个充当书桌、粗糙平实的木箱，仿佛在诉说着马拉的美德。
这幅画通过去除所有的动作、所有的寓言人物以及弱化所有的谋杀痕迹，创作出一副革命者圣像，成为法国大革命史上的经典作品。
《马拉之死》描绘的是法国大革命时期遇害的雅各宾派领袖马拉被刺的情景：马拉倒在浴缸中，鲜血从他胸口流出，带血的匕首掉落在地上。马拉的躯体无力地垂到一边，手中还拿着刺客的信函， 右手还握着笔。他审批的木箱上有墨水瓶和纸。手上的便笺写的是：“1793年7月13日，玛丽·安娜·夏洛蒂·科黛致公民马拉：‘我’十分不幸，指望能够得到您的慈善，这就足够了。”而木箱上的便笺上写的则是：“请把这五个法郎的纸币给一位五个孩子的母亲，她的丈夫为祖国献出了自己的生命。”
创作背景
《马拉之死》创作于法国历史上动荡，血腥，也是伟大的变革时期。路易十六治理下的法国当时正处于一场危机中，这一波灾难的导火线照例是金融危机， 法国因资助美国争取独立而洋洋得意，但财政上的拮据又迫使国王向人民增税。以避免破产。因为贵族、神职人员可以免税，但是穷苦的平民们却要为此掏空口袋。1789年，法国作物歉收，物价飞涨。
1793年7月13日夜晚，法国大革命激进派的代表人物——保尔·马拉遇刺身亡。7月14日，法国召开国民大会，谴责保皇党的反革命阴谋。一位名叫希罗的代表发言，呼吁画家雅克·路易·大卫拿起画笔为马拉报仇，要让敌人看到马拉被刺的情景发抖。大卫是法国绘画中新古典主义的代表人物、国民大会议员、人民教育委员会委员，他接受了这一任务后，立即赶到事件现场，了解情况，为死去的马拉画了头像，下石膏面模作为形象参考。他还把刺客留下的匕首和马拉死去的浴盆搬回画室，作为创作的依据。
科黛以向马拉举报康恩地区的吉伦特党人为名，进入马拉的浴室。事后的审讯记录表明，当时科黛向马拉举报了18名吉伦特党人，马拉一一记下，并表示第二天就要按名单抓人并送他们上断头台。此时科黛掏出小刀，一刀刺杀了马拉，然而她并没有逃走，而是静静地等待抓捕。所以，当时马拉手上的便笺，应该是那张他准备处决的18人名单。因此，有理由怀疑，桌子上充满慈善温情的钱和抚恤信，也来自大卫的杜撰而非事实。马拉死后，雅克·路易·大卫为马拉画了《马拉之死》画作。
艺术鉴赏
《马拉之死》画中的人是被仁慈、正直和无私的爱国情怀所美化的人，皮肤的色调如同冰冷的石头，马拉身上的伤口醒目、细致，如同十字架上耶稣身上的伤口，而马拉此时似乎也有着耶稣般的感召力，整幅画弥漫着悲凉的美感，似乎有宗教崇拜的意义，有着超强的说服力，镇定而坚毅的遗容好像表明马拉并没有死。画家塑造了一位已经死去但仍永远活着的英雄。
画中的马拉已经褪去了丑陋的面容，死亡让他安逸得远离了杀戮，药水也已经好像洗清了他所有的罪恶，使他变成了一名善良、诚实、无私爱国的美男子。大卫希望所有法国公民都能够看看马拉这位献身于法国革命事业的政治家。他丝毫没有描绘房中的其他景物，甚至没有描绘依旧在屋里的科黛，空旷的房间仿佛在说——马拉依旧是你们的“人民之友”。大卫用他的笔将马拉的死绘制为了不朽的历史画名作，也是用这支笔美化了一个丧心病狂的屠夫。大卫在视觉上修复了马拉浑身的“疱疹性皮炎”导致的溃疡，从而不让观者对马拉出了名的丑陋形象产生恶心；又为马拉的手上的信笺，填上动人的内容。这样的艺术创造，为的是打造一个圣徒般的马拉，引起不明真相的观者对刺杀者的痛恨。
《马拉之死》画作的竖构图明快单纯、庄重，省略了一切无关大局的细节，占据画面一半的深沉得发黑的背景，压得人几乎喘不过气来。而夺人眼目的皮肤的尸色、木箱的黄色、毯子的绿色、被单和纸张的白色，又都最大限度地呈现出来，形成了强烈的对比。马拉靠在一个浴缸里，他一只手无力地垂落在缸外，另一只手拿着字条，头后仰，面部带着平静的表情，就像工作劳累后闭目小憩一样，鲜血从他的胸膛流出。
该画作用笔结实有力，以写实的笔法刻画雅各宾派领袖马拉遇刺身亡。暗淡沉郁的画面充满了悲剧色彩，表述的是一个撼动人心的历史瞬间，反映了一个真实的具有激情与理想、流血与死亡的大革命时代。在营造马拉“圣徒”形象的技巧方面，大卫画的马拉整体姿态，特别是下垂的胳膊，巧妙地将观画者的感受与耶稣基督下十字架的印象联系了起来。作为一个天主教国家，耶稣基督下十字架时的形象，通过各位知名或不知名的画家，存在于天主教世界的各个角落，拉斐尔等大画家都有过类似的表达。
名家点评
19世纪法国现代派诗人、评论家夏尔·皮埃尔·波德莱尔：《马拉之死》“没有迂腐平庸之处，既有一种柔和的的情调，同时又有一股动人心魄的力量。该画作是一出触目惊心的戏剧。一种非常强烈的表现力使得该幅作品成为现代艺术的奇迹之一。”
前苏联美术评论家尤·戈·夏皮罗：《马拉之死》“把一个人的生活、斗争、社会观点和死亡描述得比长篇大论可能记述的还要充分。”
作者简介
雅克·路易·大卫（Jacques-Louis David，1748年8月30日-1825年12月9日）是法国画家，古典主义画派的奠基人，艺术教育家，学生有新古典主义代表人让·奥古斯特·多米尼克·安格尔，让·巴蒂斯特·卡米耶·科罗等。画风严谨，技法精工。
--------Introduction in English--------
The death of mara is a canvas and oil painting created in 1793 by Jacques Louis David, founder of the French neoclassical school of painting, which is now collected in the royal gallery of Belgium.
"Death of marat" deliberately creates a space for the poor. In enclosed in a narrow room, mara in the bathtub, pen in one hand, a hand holding the blood dyed the letter, the upper half of the oil painting brush loose messy, could be a wall, and may only be vague unknown space, representing the eternal nothingness, but that serve as a desk, rough plain wooden case, as if telling the virtue of mara.
By removing all movement, all allegorical figures, and detracting all traces of murder, the painting created a revolutionary icon that became a classic work of the French revolution.
"The death of marat" depicts the stabbing of marat, the jacobin leader killed during the French revolution: marat falls in a bathtub, blood flowing from his chest, and his bloody dagger falls to the ground. Mara's body hung limp to one side, his assassin's letter in his hand, his pen in his right. The wooden cases he examined contained ink bottles and paper. The note read: "on July 13, 1793, Mary Anna charlotte corday addressed to marla, a citizen: 'I' am very unhappy, and hope to receive your charity. That is enough." The note on the chest said: "please give this five-franc note to a mother of five whose husband gave his life for his country."
The creation background
"The death of marat" was written during a turbulent, bloody and great period of change in French history. Louis xvi's France was in the midst of a crisis that was, as usual, set off by a financial crisis, in which France prided itself on funding America's independence, but financial constraints forced the king to raise taxes on the people. To avoid bankruptcy. The nobility and clergy were exempt from taxes, but the poor were left with empty pockets. In 1789, crops failed and prices soared.
On the night of July 13, 1793, Paul mara, a representative of the radical group of the French revolution, was assassinated. On July 14th France convened its national assembly to denounce royalist counter-revolutionary plots. A representative named hiro spoke and called on the painter Jacques Louis David to take up his paintbrush in revenge for marla, so that the enemy could see marla being stabbed and tremble. David is a representative of neo-classicism in French painting, a member of the national assembly, and a member of the people's education committee. After he accepted this task, he immediately went to the scene of the event to learn about the situation, and painted the head of the dead horse, with plaster face mold as the image reference. He also took the dagger left by the assassin and marla's dead tub back to the studio as a basis for his creation.
Corday entered marla's bathroom under the guise of informing marla about the girondins of the conn area. An inquest later recorded that corday had reported 18 girontes to mara, who wrote them down and said the next day they would be arrested and guillotined. At this time corday took out a knife, a knife to assassinate mara, but she did not escape, but quietly waiting for arrest. So the note that marla had at the time was probably the list of 18 people that he was going to execute. So it is reasonable to suspect that the money and letters of condolence on the table, full of charity and warmth, also came from David's fiction rather than fact. After marla's death, Jacques Louis David painted marla's death.
Art appreciation
"The death of mara" person in the picture is by kindness, integrity and selfless patriotism beautification, skin color is like a cold stone, the wound in the body, smart, careful, like Jesus on the cross of the wound, and marla seems to have had the charisma of Jesus, at this time the whole picture is filled with the aesthetic feeling of sadness, there seems to be the meaning of religious worship, has a strong persuasive, calm and determined the body seems to show that mara did not die. The painter created a hero who was dead but still alive.
The marla in the painting has lost his ugly face, death makes him comfortable away from the killing, the potion has also seemed to wash away all his SINS, making him become a kind, honest, selfless patriotic man. David wanted all French citizens to see marat, a politician dedicated to the French revolution. He did not describe anything else in the room, not even corday, who was still inside. The empty room seemed to say that marla was still your "friend of the people." David used his pen to immortalize marla's death and to beautify a mad butcher. David visually repaired marla's ulcers from "dermatitis herpetic", preventing viewers from being disgusted by marla's notoriously ugly image; And on marat's hand he wrote a touching letter. Such an artistic creation, intended to create a marla like a saint, arouses hatred of the assassins from the unsuspecting viewer.
The vertical composition of "death of marla" is bright, simple and solemn, omitting all details that are irrelevant to the overall situation and occupying half of the deep and blackening background, which makes people almost breathless. The colour of the dead skin, the yellow of the wooden box, the green of the blanket, the white of the sheet and the paper, all came out in sharp contrast. Marla leaned back in a bathtub, one hand hanging limply out of the tub, the other holding the note, his head thrown back, his face as calm as if he had closed his eyes after a hard day's work, blood pouring from his chest.
The painting function pen is strong and powerful, with realistic depiction of the assassination of the jacobin leader mara. The bleak and gloomy picture is full of tragic colors, expressing a heart-shaking historical moment, reflecting a real revolutionary era with passion and ideals, blood and death. In terms of the technique of creating marat's "sainthood" image, David's overall posture of marat, especially his drooping arms, subtly links the viewer's feelings with the image of Jesus Christ on the cross. As a Catholic country, the image of Jesus Christ at the time of his crucifixion exists in every corner of the Catholic world through various famous or unknown painters, such as Raphael.
Famous review
Charles Pierre baudelaire, 19th century French modernist poet and critic: the death of marat "there is no pedantry and banality, but there is a soft sentiment and a moving power at the same time. The painting is a shocking play. A very strong expression makes this work one of the wonders of modern art."
Yoo goh Shapiro, former Soviet art critic: the death of marat "paints a fuller picture of a person's life, struggle, social views, and death than a lengthy account might allow."
Author's brief introduction
Jacques Louis David (August 30, 1748 -- December 9, 1825) was a French painter, founder of the classical school, and an art educator. The painting style is rigorous, the technique is exquisite.
