Voltaire

Art Historical Context

This exquisite marble bust of Voltaire, by French sculptor Jean-Claude-François-Joseph Rosset between 1750 and 1786, captures the essence of one of the Enlightenment's most brilliant minds. Standing at 15½ inches tall, the sculpture resides in the Metropolitan Museum of's European Sculpture and Decor Arts collection, a bequest from Annie C. Kane in 1926. Rosset, a skilled practitioner of 18th-century French portrait, renders Voltaire with a poised intensity that reflects the era's fascination with intellectual heroes. Voltaire (1694–1778), the philosopher, playwright, and champion of reason, ...