Voltaire Arriving in Hell Riding Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
122064
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
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 ...