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776! CHAPTER 26 Rococo to Neoclassicism: The 18th Century in Europe and America

appealed greatly to Watteau’s wealthy patrons, whom, even as he was dying from tuberculosis, he still depicted as carefree and at leisure in his most unusual painting, Signboard of Gersaint (!"#. 26-7B).

François Boucher. A$er Watteau’s death brought his bril- liant career to a premature end at age 36, F%&'()"* B)+,-.% (1703–1770) rose to the dominant position in French painting, in large part because he was Madame de Pompadour’s favorite artist. Although Boucher was an excellent portraitist, his success rested primarily on his canvases depicting shepherds, nymphs, and god- desses gracefully cavorting in shady glens engulfed in pink and sky-blue light. Cupid a Captive (!"#. 26-8) presents a rosy pyramid of infant and female /esh set o0 against a cool, leafy background, with /uttering draperies both hiding and revealing the nudity of the 1gures. Boucher used the full range of Italian and French Baroque devices—the dynamic play of crisscrossing diagonals, curvilinear forms, and slanting recessions—to create his master- ful composition. But he dissected powerful Baroque curves into a multiplicity of decorative /ourishes, dissipating Baroque drama into sensual playfulness. Lively and lighthearted, Boucher’s artful Rococo

In Pilgrimage to Cythera (!"#. 26-7), luxuriously costumed lovers make a “pil- grimage” to Cythera, the island of eternal youth and love, sacred to Aphrodite. (Some art historians think that the lovers are returning from Cythera rather than having just arrived. Watteau provided few clues to settle the question de1nitively.) 2e elegant 1gures move gracefully from the protective shade of a woodland park 1lled with play- ful cupids and voluptuous statuary. 2e poses of the 1gures, which blend elegance and sweetness, are hallmarks of Watteau’s style, both in ambitious multi1gure compositions such as Pilgrimage to Cythera and in single-1gure studies such as L’Indi!érent (!"#. 26-7A).

Watteau prepared his paintings using albums of draw- ings in which he sought to capture slow movement from di3cult and unusual angles, searching for the smoothest, most poised, and most re1ned attitudes. As he experimented with nuances of posture and movement, Watteau also strove for the most exquisite shades of color di0erence, de1ning in a single stroke the shimmer of silk at a bent knee or the shine appearing on a glossy surface as it emerges from shadow. 2e haze of color, the subtly modeled shapes, the gliding motion, and the air of suave gentility tinged with nostalgia

26-7B WATTEAU, Signboard of Gersaint, 1721.

26-7 A!"#$!% W&""%&', Pilgrimage to Cythera, 1717. Oil on canvas, 49 30 ( 69 4 120. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Watteau’s fête galante paintings depict the outdoor amusements of French upper-class society. The haze of color suited the new Rococo taste and was the hallmark of the Royal Academy’s Rubénistes.

26-7A WATTEAU, L’Indifférent, ca. 1716.

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