Pieta and Jean-Paul Marat in Davids Painting - Assignment Example

The Pieta The word is used often enough to describe the fabulous artwork primarily of Michelangelo, butthe actually meaning of the term ‘pieta’ might not be immediately clear. According to the All Hallows Artroom, the word ‘pieta’ is actually based upon an Italian term that translates to sorrow and compassion. Therefore, when it’s related to artworks, it describes the image of the Virgin mother cradling the body of her son Jesus and mourning her loss. There are several famous examples of the pieta in artwork, three of which were created by Michelangelo, however, Pontormo’s Deposition also reflects the image of the pieta. In studying these works, it is possible to see the influences of Michelangelo’s pietas, Pontormo’s depiction of the same and Caravaggio’s sense of lighting within Jacque Louis David’s Death of Marat, turning this last piece into something of a secular pieta. Michelangelo created at least three pietas, two statues and one painting that are now housed in Florence, Rome and Boston respectively. In each, the lifeless form of Jesus is seen draped upon his mother’s form. In one statue and the painting, he is completely in his mother’s embrace, lain either across her lap or clasped in her arms. The earliest statue, the one now housed in Rome, depicts Jesus lain across his mother’s lap as she looks down upon him in sorrowful acceptance of his passing. His head falls lifelessly over her arm as she supports his shoulders, his face betraying no emotion even as his body carries a certain weight as expressed in the position of his shoulder and the pressure of his leg draped over her knee. In the Florence statue, Jesus is supported with the aid of an older man (Joseph?) and another male figure as Mary receives him into her embrace. In this depiction, his body forms an S shape with his head dropping over his shoulder toward the face of his mother and his legs trailing behind in the other direction as he is brought to her. The form is artfully lifeless as the face depicts a serene calm with no indication of the brutality of his death. Like the earlier statue, this form also carries a tremendous amount of natural body weight as each of the figures struggle to hold him up and pressure can be seen in the support of the shoulders and leg. In the final depiction, Jesus is draped over the separated legs of his mother by two young boys who pull his arms over her form. His head drops lifelessly forward, hiding the expression on his face. His arms offer no resistance to the pull of the boys and his body is seen to have followed their direction. However, at the same time that this image depicts lifelessness, the position of Jesus’ legs also impart the vision of Jesus standing up and walking away, as if he had been merely asleep. Pontormo’s depiction of the pieta is similarly populated with additional figures surrounding the lifeless form of Jesus. In this painting, we see a group of primarily women mourning his death as his body is carried forward to the waiting, sorrowful arms of Mary, who is seen as the central figure in the painting. In contrast to the artwork created by Michelangelo, Pontormo’s Jesus looks more like a man paralyzed in position rather than the lifeless form of a man already dead. His head remains propped up into a natural living position by the gentle hands of one of the women surrounding Mary while the rest of his body is supported by two young men. Although lifeless, his face still retains some of the coloring of life, giving the impression that this is a man only recently deceased. However, Jesus carries the same type of body weight that can be seen in Michelangelo’s depiction in the hunching of his shoulders where one person is holding him up and in the strained expression on the face of the boy who is supporting his legs and body upon his back. Unlike the Michelangelo images, where all attention from all figures involved is focused upon the body of Christ or on the heavens themselves, Pontormo’s image allows several of the individuals within the painting to focus instead on Mary in her grief or on something that lies outside of the frame on the earthly plane, giving the piece a more material presence as opposed to Michelangelo’s spiritual presence. Because of the way in which he repeated several patterns that can be seen in the earlier pietas for his work on the Marat painting, and because of his own opinion of Marat and the work he was doing in the years of the French Revolution, Jacque Louis David’s Death of Marat can be considered a secular pieta. In displaying Marat, he used several of the same techniques in establishing Michelangelo’s sense of weight and peacefulness. In organizing the composition, he utilized the same off-center positioning of his subject to bring the importance of the piece upon Marat’s face itself. In illustrating his own interpretation of the event, he borrowed from the varied patterns of light depiction explored and developed by Michelangelo Caravaggio. Unlike Michelangelo or Pontormo, Jacque Louis David did not include additional people in his painting of the Death of Marat, but he included enough additional detail to make a clear comparison with the pietas of the Renaissance. The portion of the body that can be seen is depicted in such a way as to indicate death in no uncertain terms. The majority of the body is still hidden within the bath, but the head and shoulders droop painfully. While one arm hangs lifelessly to the floor, the head leans back upon the back edge of the bathtub and the other arm drapes heavily across a writing surface he used. “The face is marked by suffering, but is also gentle and suffused by a growing peacefulness as the pangs of death loosen their grip” (“Jacques-Louis David”, 2004). Marat’s face holds the same sort of peaceful acceptance in death that is depicted upon the various faces of Jesus as he is depicted by Michelangelo and Pontormo. That this is not a sleeping pose is made obvious by the unnatural curve Marat’s spine must make for him to be positioned in this fashion, making it clear that only the heaviness of death would pull him into such a position. The unnatural image of his hand still holding aloft the last thing he was writing prior to his murder indicates that this is not yet a dead man, but rather a man on the very edge of death, which also differs from the images of the pieta in which Jesus is taken down from the cross already dead. Also unlike Michelangelo or Pontormo, David includes evidence of the violence that has occurred with the presence of a red spot of blood upon the towel under Marat’s body and the smears of blood that can be seen at the bottom of the page he had been writing upon. The bathtub seems to be full of blood-stained water and the entry point of the knife that killed him can be seen upon his breast, with a few drops of blood also appearing here. David’s use of lighting is more reminiscent of Michelangelo Carravaggio, however, in that it is a differing light depending upon the image it touches. A strong, harsh light is placed upon some objects meant to bring out sharp contrasts between the highlights and shadows, touching and picking up color in unexpected places and ways, while a softer light is used to gently wash Marat in its glow, illuminating the man’s strength and dignity such as the youthful blush on Marat’s cheeks and the redness in his lips that are touched with a soft, peaceful smile. That this is a death scene is underscored by the presence of the wooden packing case, reminiscent of a tombstone even to the point of carrying his name, which balances out the bottom portion of the painting. The ways in which this painting is comparable to the various pietas demonstrates David’s own views of the man that was Marat. “In this sober and subtle interplay of elements can be seen, in perfect harmony with the drawing, the blend of compassion and outrage David felt at the sight of the victim” (“Jacques-Louis David”, 2004). To further illustrate his vision of the man that Jean-Paul Marat was, David surrounded his subject with objects that would highlight his gracefulness and vilify his assailants. “David has surrounded Marat with a number of details borrowed from his subject’s world, including the knife and Charlotte Corday’s petition, attempting to suggest through these objects both the victim’s simplicity and grandeur, and the perfidy of the assassin” (“Jacques-Louis David”, 2004). The petition is one that requested assistance for a mother of five children whose husband had died in defense of the country while the mended sheet indicates his own unwillingness to spend needlessly and his attempts to mend the country from the depredations brought upon it by an uncaring and disrespectful aristocracy. The subject of David’s painting, Jean-Paul Marat was a violent-prone activist who supported the Jacobin Party during the French Revolution because of their emphasis on helping the poor and destitute or the sans-coulettes. He spoke at length regarding the injustices of the monarchy and called for the execution of the king. Not able to find publication elsewhere, he started his own newspaper entitled L’Ami du Peuple in which he called for a violent resolution to the issues of bread prices. Within this paper, he continually called out for justice to be served to high-ranking yet corrupt politicians and nobles, losing his own status in the process and being forced to flee France time and again or to hide in basements and cellars, where he contracted the skin disease that forced him to seek relief within the waters of his bathtub. He was killed in his bathtub on July 13, 1793 by a female Royalist named Charlotte Corday, who managed to gain entrance to his home and stabbed him while he soaked. This portrayal of him as his soul is taking leave of his body is meant to inspire the same sort of spiritual connection that was made when people looked upon images of the pieta. David was asked to paint the final portrait because he had been a friend of Marat and was a high-ranking member of the Jacobin party himself. David had been appointed to the Committee of General Security in 1793, the year of Marat’s murder, and has been proven to have signed at least 300 warrants which led to the death of the subjects. His actions during the Reign of Terror led to his arrest soon after, but he was released thanks to the support of his students in 1794. “I believed, in accepting the post of legislator – an honorable post, but one very difficult to fulfill – that an upright heart would suffice, but I was lacking in the second quality, by which mean insight” he wrote to a friend during his imprisonment (Gerten-Jackson, 1996). Thanks to his sympathy for the cause for which Jean-Paul Marat dedicated the latter part of his life and suffered so much, as well as his own interpretations of the man that held him in such high esteem, Jacques-Louis David felt a straight depiction of Marat’s body on the day after his death did not do justice to the martyrdom that he had achieved. Toward that end, David purposely set out to capture an image that would be reminiscent enough of the pieta to make his image of Marat stand alone as a secular pieta, hoping it would inspire fellow Frenchmen to rally to the cause of the Jacobin political system and a new day for France. Within this piece, the influences of the masters that had come before him are blended together in such a way as to reveal David’s own unique techniques and serve to capture the ethereal moment in which a great man, at least in David’s opinion, passed from life into death. Works Cited “Art Terms.” All Hallows Parish School. (n.d.). April 18, 2006 Bailey, J.D. “Jean-Paul Marat.” The 1911 Edition Encyclopedia. (1891). Love to Know Corporation. April 18, 2006 Gerten-Jackson, Carol. “JL David Biography.” CGFA. (1996). April 18, 2006 “Jacque-Louis David: The Death of Marat.” (2004). Neo-Classicism and French Revolution. April 18, 2006 Labella, Vincenzo. A Season of Giants: 1492-1508. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1990. “Pontormo’s Deposition/Entombment.” College of the Holy Cross. (2006). April 18, 2006 Read More