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Mezzetin

Antoine Watteau • Painting, 1719, 55.2×43.2 cm
$54.00
Digital copy: 2.2 MB
1520 × 1932 px • JPEG
43.2 × 55.2 cm • 89 dpi
25.7 × 32.7 cm • 150 dpi
12.9 × 16.4 cm • 300 dpi
Digital copy is a high resolution file, downloaded by the artist or artist's representative. The price also includes the right for a single reproduction of the artwork in digital or printed form.
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About the artwork
Art form: Painting
Subject and objects: Genre scene
Style of art: Rococo
Technique: Oil
Materials: Canvas
Date of creation: 1719
Size: 55.2×43.2 cm
Artwork in selections: 20 selections
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Description of the artwork «Mezzetin»

Mezzetin from the painting by Antoine Watteau is one of the characters of Italian Commedia Dell'arte. It is not as widely known as Piero, another frequent guest in the work of Watteau. Psychologically Mezzetin – his complete opposite. Pierrot sad, Mezzetin right. Piero defenseless – Mezzetin insidious and who want to turn the finger around. Piero always suffers from loneliness and unrequited love, and Mezzetin – ladies man and schemer, what to look for.

However, in Watteau have Mezzetta have something in common with the eternally reject Piero. Experts believe that Mezzetin with a guitar sings a song about his bitter unrequited love. This situation is supplied by the artist with a remarkable irony excluding any drama: in the depths of the canvas, in the Bush we see someone's back. Probably, it is the object of longing Mezzetta. Looking closer, we realize that it is likely the statue. Well, this does not exactly answer Mezzetino back – she's stone!

The artist's skill can be assessed not only in color or composition – sometimes it is enough to see how he portrays hands. Hands Mezzettais the finished product of pictorial art. Long fingers flat out to the tips. Subtly traced the swollen veins and strained joints. Think we see even a movement, the nervous too much of the fingers on the strings. The illusion of reality is very strong. Few people wrote hands as well as Watteau in this picture.

Impressed by the credibility of the picturesque development of owner, researched decided to go ahead and asked the professional musicians to make an analysis of the location of the fingers on the strings. It is interesting that plays Mezzetin. But then everyone was disappointed. If you play music similar to the one that should make the guitar at the time, captured on film, the sound work is awful. However, critics have found "justification" Watteau: they decided that in this way the artist simply mocks his own exquisitely refined painting. And what more, he says, should be music, if it plays the clown? Only cutting, not mellifluous.

"Mezzetin" – painting by Watteau's Mature, if it be permissible to speak of "maturity" as applied to the artist, who died at the age of 36 and wrote a little more than ten. Great transferred the pose of a hero – no wonder Watteau almost years of his short life spent in the theatre, endlessly sketching out the movements, gestures and postures taken by the actors on the stage, and beyond. Note how masterfully the end of life, Watteau learned how to convey the texture of the tissues (impact lessons favorite Fleming). Traditional jester outfit: beret, striped breeches and jacket with crimped collar and stockings and shoes with POM-poms – written in both senses of the word brilliant.

It is interesting to note that the court has other, though somewhat lesser-known paintings from this character: "Italian actors"and "The Family Mezzetta".

Author: Anna Yesterday
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