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Pair of brown-green patina bronze sculptures representing the bust of two great French philosophers and writers of the Enlightenment: Voltaire * and Jean-Jacques Rousseau **, gray marble pedestals, period late eighteenth-early nineteenth centuries.
These busts are in good condition. They are not signed.
A note: the barrel with the bust of Rousseau is not centered on the base, some dirt and small chips on the marble, wear on the gilding, wear and scratches of time, see photos.
François-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire (1694 -1778) is a writer and philosopher who marked the eighteenth century and occupies a special place in the collective memory of France. It sketches the figure of the intellectual committed to the service of truth, justice and freedom of thought. An emblematic figure of Enlightenment France, leader of the philosophical party, his name remains attached to his fight against "the infamous", a name he gives to religious fanaticism, and for progress and tolerance. However, he is deistic and his ideal remains that of a moderate and liberal monarchy, enlightened by the "philosophers". He also works with the enlightened elites of Europe of the Enlightenment, using his immense fame and takes, alone, the defense of the victims of religious intolerance and arbitrariness in cases he has made famous .
Francophone writer, philosopher and musician from Geneva. The life of Jean-Jacques Rousseau is a life of independence and instability. He left Geneva at the age of sixteen for Savoy before going to Paris in 1742 thinking of a career in music. He then leads a difficult life, seeking various protectors and living with Thérèse Levasseur who will give him five children. At the same time he meets Diderot and writes articles on music for the Encyclopédie. Rousseau enters the history of ideas with his brief essays. Having taken the opposite of Hobbes' philosophy, he nevertheless knows a return to the impossible origin and he continues a reflection on the functioning of a democratic society based on the Social Contract (1762) in which the sovereign people organizes the collective life . In the literary field, the contribution of Jean-Jacques Rousseau is also decisive with Julie or the New Heloise (1761), novel by letters on the English model of Pamela or the Virtue awarded Samuel Richardson, which will be one of the biggest draws of the century. Thus, the influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau is greater in the field of political philosophy by nourishing the reflection on democracy than in the field of literature.
