#1734

Lara Croft from Tomb Raider (1996)

"I want to see what people on this webbed site think in 2026"

context from the submitter: the painting is Portrait of Frederick William of Brandenburg-Schwedt with His Wife Sophia Dorothea of Prussia by Antoine Pesne

1, Tabula 46, Fig. 1 "Goat from Curaçao, conjoined with a little kid."

The Collation from a set of the Italian Village Scenes

Designer: Designed by François Boucher (French, Paris 1703–1770 Paris)

Manufactory: Beauvais

Workshop director: André Charlemagne Charron (French, active 1754–80)

Patron: Commissioned for Boulard de Gatellier (Château de Gatellier (Loire))

designed 1734–36, woven 1762

Voltaire

Voltaire (1694-1778) was a French author, historian, and philosopher whose thoughts on religious toleration and moderation of authoritarian power were influential during the Enlightenment. His most famous work today is the satirical Candide, which presents Voltaire's critical thoughts on other philosophers, the Catholic Church, and the French state in order to highlight the need for real solutions to everyday problems.

Early Life

François-Marie Arouet, better known by his chosen pseudonym Voltaire, was born in Paris on 21 November 1694. Françoise-Marie's father was a notary who sent him to the highly esteemed Louis-le-Grand college, then run by Jesuits. Going on to study law, Françoise-Marie's real interest was literature, and he was soon writing his own poems and plays. These early offerings were the beginning of what would turn out to be a momentous catalogue of works of all kinds by the end of Voltaire's long career.

In 1718, Voltaire's first play, Oedipus, was successfully staged, and he had his first poem, La Henriade, published to great acclaim in 1723. Voltaire might have had literary aspirations, but his fledgling career took a nosedive in 1726 when, after an argument with the Chevalier de Rohan, he was confined in the infamous Bastille prison. When he got out, Voltaire decided to broaden his horizons, and he visited first the Netherlands and then England, where he lived until 1729.