Antoine Watteau's Fete Galante and Its Relationship to Early Eighteenth-Century Dance

The aristocratic figures in Antoine Watteau's fetes galantes stand out markedly from their pictorial precedents in manifesting artfully refined postures and dynamic networks of interplay. Recent interpretations of the fete galante have focused upon its iconography, without recognizing that the distinctive way in which the figures are represented is as important as the subject matter for the evocation of elegant and provocative interaction. This dissertation directs attention to the artful mode of representation in the fete galante and shows that it parallels in both structure and meaning the aristocratic dance of the early eighteenth century. The examination proceeds chronologically; it shows how Watteau gradually developed figural postures and relationships which share with the aristocratic dance a union of corporeal naturalism and stylized pattern. Specific structural comparisons are combined with an examination of the function and goals of the dance to show that Watteau was articulating pictorially contemporary ideals of aristocratic comportment, interaction and eroticism. The first part of the study demonstrates how Watteau used various decorative systems to create a sense of the body united with dancelike style--efforts which culminated in his representations of the dance itself. The central section argues that Watteau developed the dynamic gatherings of the fete galante directly out of these portrayals of dance, and it compares the layered systems of interaction in the fete galante to the erotic tensions and kinetic patterns of dances unfolding in time. An analysis in this section of the impulses underlying aristocratic socializing in the early eighteenth century reveals the Watteau's gatherings surpassed the dance itself in realizing the contemporary goal of a decentralized "ritual" for aristocratic display and interaction. The examination concludes by pointing out the close interrelation between eighteenth-century writings on Watteau and on aristocratic dance, to argue that contemporary attitudes toward the fete galante were directly informed by ideals of the dancing body.