How did 18th Century artists of the French Revolution find political inspiration in Italian Renaissance art?

In 18th Century France, public anger at Louis XVI's decadent living habits during famine lead to a revolution which saw an end to the autocratic power of the monarch and the aristocracy. As the upper classes had embraced the Rococo style, which depicted luxurious and frivolous pastoral scenes of the aristocracy at leisure, revolutionary artists such as David and Ingres rejected these ideals and promoted the republican philosophical values of the Italian Renaissance. These French artists embraced the Italian Renaissance because it upheld the idea of republics, freedom and democracy, celebrated underdog heroes, and praised their left wing politicians - something David and Ingres wished to support and reflect in their own leaders. For example, using the imagery of classical and biblical tragic heroes such as Michelangelo's 'David' and Caravaggio's depiction of Jesus in 'The Entombment of Christ', David's 'The Death of Marat' portrays the revolutionary figure as imitating their postures, physiques, and even democratic and moral principles, in a fashion which would repurpose Renaissance iconography to give gravitas and significance to revolutionary propaganda.