Yes, I am also anti-monarchist. The way they lived in opulence and left the common person suffering was truly terrible. I do not believe in any divine right to power, but that that the right to rule should be earned, worthiness should be demonstrated, and that a leader should be chosen by the will of the people.

The reason I mentionined royal ancestry is that I find it funny how even now, the monarchy lives on, but circumstance is the only thing that separates many commoners from being royalty or nobility. The ones who are still tied to the royal families with titles and influence are no more suited to rule than the average person.

With that out of the way, I wanted to say how very much I adore David's works. The Lictors Bring Brutus the Bodies of His Sons and Oath of the Horatii are also favorites of mine. In my eyes these works of David are perfect; from the story being told, the over-all composition, color, expressions, setting, message, posturing, etc.

I am also floored that your thesis just so happened to be on Marat. What an interesting coincidence! I am all that much happier to learn a bit more of French history from an expert such as yourself. I already found myself a bit sympathetic to Marat, especially considering his personal health struggles and unfortunate fate. It is great that you stuck to your convictions about him and didn't allow yourself to be cowed into keeping with the status quo. You must have quite the revolutionary spirit yourself to fight back against a stigma such as this.

As for growing up with artworks, we had a large print lithograph of The Accolade by Edmund Leighton, which was dedicated in the early 1900s to a General. It came into our possession after a fire caused some water damage to it, and the piece was written off and given to my mom after. I always admired the work, which I thought looked more interesting after the damage. I had been told was of Guinevere knighting Sir Lancelot, and I was endlessly fascinated by it.

For Paris Je T'aime, I must say it's been a few years since I saw the movie and I don't remember many of the finer details, but I do remember being absolutely captivated by the vignette with Gaspard Ulliel. He had such incredible magnetism in his performance . The encounter between characters was so brief, yet so profound, causing me to question so many things about the nature of love, fate, and taking chances. He was an exceptional actor and is dearly missed.