Le Culte Naturel (The Natural Worship)
Medium
Etching on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 39.9 × 49.2 cm (15 3/4 × 19 3/8 in.); Sheet: 55.3 × 42.5 cm (21 13/16 × 16 3/4 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
148611
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Jean Baptiste Mallet studied with Pierre-Paul Prud’hon and exhibited in Paris Salons between 1793 and 1827. This large-scale etching depicts a Republican baptism ceremony during the French Revolution. The revolutionary leader Robespierre promoted and mandated participation in the Cult of the Supreme Being, an alternative faith to both Catholicism and the atheistic Cult of Reason. Robespierre’s religious tenets appear in the background banners, reading from left to right: “Freedom of Worship,” “W...