Art Institute of Chicago

Le Culte Naturel (The Natural Worship)

Jean-Baptist Mallet

Date

1794

Medium

Etching on ivory laid paper

Culture

France

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

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,” “We believe in the existence of the supreme being and the immortality of the soul,” and “Adore God, cherish your fellow man, and render yourself useful to your homeland.”

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