Jean-Antoine Watteau

Mezzetino was a stock character in the old Italian travelling comedies — a servant type, always in love with someone who isn't having it. From what I can find, this sat in the collection of a friend who had prints made of everything, and a few decades later it was bought up for the Empress of Russia's palace.

Mezzetino was a stock character in the old Italian travelling comedies — a servant type, always in love with someone who isn't having it. From what I can find, this sat in the collection of a friend who had prints made of everything, and a few decades later it was bought up for the Empress of Russia's palace.

From what I can find, this was part of a set standing in for the four seasons — the lion's a nod to Leo, marking high summer.

This one, from what I can find, was painted as a companion to another Watteau scene called The Surprise — the two were meant to hang as a pair.

Wikipedia says he painted this to get himself into the French academy, and they couldn't fit it into any category they already had, so they invented one — well-off people mucking about outdoors in silk. People still argue about whether this lot are setting off or coming home.

From what I can find, nobody's totally sure whether this shows an actual performance or Watteau's own daydream of one — his theater scenes tend to blur the two.