The Apotheosis of Voltaire

Both compositions were reproduced as prints, probably around the time that Voltaire's remains were transferred to the Paris Pantheon with great ceremony and huge crowds in 1791.

Apotheosis compositions had been popular in Western art since the Late Renaissance, celebrating both religious and secular figures, based on classical precedents.

In the centre of Duplessis's painting, Melpomene muse of tragedy, leads Voltaire towards Apollo while behind the god, a putto holds up a waiting crown of immortality.

Although in his correspondence Voltaire compared him to Rubens,[8] Madame de Genlis described the painting as a pub sign (“enseigne à bière”).

Personifications of perhaps Ignorance and Envy fall back from the horse's hoofs, while a female figure, possibly Paris or Truth, reaches out to him on the other side.