Ideas take priority over images even great ones in this chaotic if undeniably interesting exploration of the influence of leftwing values on the production and reception of art
Marat has just been stabbed through the heart. The revolutionary leader lies dead in his bath, one hand stubbing the nib of his once-powerful pen on the floor, the other still holding a false letter of introduction from his killer Charlotte Corday. The simple wooden crate he was using as a desk only moments ago has become a monument to his heroism: strewn with his writings and inscribed with the artist's own homage "To Marat, signed David".
The Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David is exhibit A of revolutionary art. It was a martyr's memorial, carried through the streets of Paris. It was a news report as much as a history painting, a protest but also a glorification, in which fully half of the canvas holds nothing but a kind of beatific twilight, turning the pale corpse into a secular pietà. A work of astounding originality, the picture is one of the undisputed masterpieces of European art but that is not how they want you to see it at Tate Liverpool.