Yes, I know what you mean - the people in his history paintings look as posed and perfect as statues. I first saw the Marat painting in an art book we had when I was very small, too young to have a concept of 'the past', or even the difference between oil paint and a photo: it was a full page, the corpse with the wound and all that darkness behind, and I thought it was a photograph of a real person, or something religious, and the box with the mysterious writing on like a gravestone - I was fascinated by it! So, maybe I can blame David and his amazing propaganda skills for the person I am today!