Unknown artist
French, 18th century
Voltaire Arriving in Hell Riding Jean-Jacques Rousseau
INV-1220
Unknown artist
French, 18th centuryc. 1778-80
Voltaire Arriving in Hell Riding Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Unknown artist French, 18th century →etchingprint
Date
c. 1778-80
Medium
Etching on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 15.4 × 18.9 cm (6 1/8 × 7 1/2 in.); Sheet: 18.3 × 23 cm (7 1/4 × 9 1/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Joseph T. Ryerson Endowment
Voltaire frequently satirized the fundamentalists of established religions, especially Catholicism, which earned him plenty of enemies. Made by someone who opposed Voltaire’s attitudes about religious tolerance, this curious print depicts the writer embracing demonic spirituality in a hellish, nocturnal scene. The lines below the image come from Voltaire’s unfinished 1730 poem about Joan of Arc, The Maid of Orleans, uttered by a dastardly character banished to Hell for his designs on the purity of the titular saint. The quotation here is particularly ironic, employing the poet’s own words against him:Oh my friends, you should live as good Christians.
That’s the part, believe me, one must take.
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