Love in the Italian Theatre
Antoine Watteau, 1718
For now, just to look at
The photograph we have of this work is not sharp enough to print at the quality we want, so we are not selling it for now. We are looking for a better one.
About the work
- Artist
- Antoine Watteau
- Date
- 1718
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 37 × 48 cm
- Collection
- Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
- Reference
- XDV-0314
What the museum label doesn't tell you
Two lights compete for attention here: the real moon, cold and half-hidden among the treetops, and the torch someone holds up for the group, warm and smoking. Nobody looks skyward - the whole crowd gathers around the manufactured flame instead. Watteau seems to catch these Italian comedians backstage, lighting themselves rather than performing for an audience. The image spread almost as widely through Cochin's engraving as through the actual canvas, so much of the eighteenth century knew this theatrical glow only on paper. Which light would you look at first, the moon or the torch?
