one deputy made a speech which is recorded by a contemporary of david, the historian delescluze.what a crime is this. "a parricidal hand has robbed us "of the people's most determined defender, "a man who died for liberty. "we still look among you, expecting to see him here "among you, our representatives. "what a spectacle it was-- "this man in the moment of his death. "where are you, david? you have another picture to paint." and david spoke up, his voice choked with emotion, "yes, i will undertake it." david painted the picture in three months. the death of marat is a murder story, and we see all the clues to the murder-- the blood, the knife, the letter marat received from charlotte corday just before she murdered him. it's a very realistic picture, strongly, movingly realistic, but it is more than that. it has an almost religious intensity, like a secular pieta, an icon to a martyr for the cause of freedom. in painting this, david created perhaps the greatest single image of the revolution. now, finally, the age of reason lost its nerve. soon after marat's death, david watch