"The Pilgrimage to Cythera" by Jean-Antoine Watteau

So along with checking out the first Harry Potter book from the library, I also checked out a couple of art history book.  isms: Understanding Art by Stephen Little and Instant Art History: From Cave Art to Pop Art by Walter Robinson.  Using these books as a bit of a refresher and light reading I came across a few paintings that I've enjoyed learning about.  One of them being The Pilgrimage to Cythera by Jean-Antoine Watteau painted during the Rococo period. 

The Pilgrimage to Cythera. 1717. Jean-Antoine Watteau.

The Rococo Era took place during the reign of Louis XV in France but spread to other countries, such as Austria and Germany. Paintings done in the Rococo period are often of a decorative style, not used for worship or sending messages.  The subject matter is usually pleasing to the eye and gives a sense of grace.   When Rococo art first appeared it was giving negative judgment.  Neo-classical artist Jacques-Louis David came up with them name 'rococo' to be an insult towards the style.  It was said to be "synonymous with feminised, corrupt, incompetent government and facile, erotic titillation" for the time.  The word or art  of 'rococo' is no longer viewed as negative. 

Jean-Antoine Watteau was one of the best Rococo painters.  He knew how to let go of the high seriousness in Baroque art and hold onto the eroticism and pleasure that Rococo allowed. He is well known for his techniques of divisionism, a processes in which pure colors are juxtaposed on the picture and blended by the eye rather than on the palette.  This technique was picked up quickly by other artist and is still used today. 

In The Pilgrimage to Cythera, a world that took Watteau five years to create, the upper class come to worship a statue of Venus, the goddess of love.  It looks as though many of the people are heading away from the statue as if the ceremony of offerings is over.  The people closest to the statue are in process of getting up and leaving.  There are many cupids fly over the people to lead the way.  The painting is an allegory of courtship and falling in love. Just in the way the paint is laid on the canvas gives a flowy, ghostly feeling.  As if everything is very 'come as it may.' The people are free, in love, and happy to do as they please. 

Photo and Information gathered from http://home.vs.moe.edu.sg/whitenoise/Images/Baroque/Rococo/cythera1717.jpg  http://www.louvre.fr Little, Stephen. isms: Understanding Art. New York: Universe, 2004. Print. Robinson, Walter. Instant Art History: from Cave Art to Pop Art. New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1995. Print.