Voltaire Arriving in Hell Riding Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

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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