This book focuses on Jacques-Louis David's 'Marat', one of the key works of art created during the period of the French Revolution and one of the most important works of Western painting. Providing an introduction that outlines the general history of the painting, it provides six new essays, each specially written for this volume, which examine the work from a variety of methodologies, including feminist, psychoanalytic and material analysis approaches. Each of these essays provides for a broader and deeper understanding of the painting, the circumstances in which it was created and commissioned, and its critical and art historical reception over two centuries.