Date of Award
Spring 5-5-2022
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Art & Art History
First Advisor
Tara Zanardi
Second Advisor
Susanna Cole
Academic Program Adviser
Lynda klich
Abstract
This thesis reexamines the work of Antoine Watteau through a social-art historical lens. Traditionally, Watteau's fêtes galantes have been closely aligned to the culture of the French nobility. However, a closer look into the artist's background, training, social milieu, and the class identity of his primary buyers reveals an alternative class alignment, inviting new interpretations for Watteau's most elusive work. This thesis challenges the close association between Watteau and the French nobility and aims to broaden the socio-visual landscape from which Watteau was drawing, namely that of a burgeoning bourgeois consumer culture. In particular, the culture of emulation, with its confusion of social signifiers and visual advertisements of the early 18th century geared toward eliciting desire and fantasy, are taken as critical sources for Watteau's enigmatic painterly style.
Recommended Citation
Roe, Bronwyn C., "Rethinking Watteau in the Context of Early Eighteenth-Century Bourgeois Culture" (2022). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_sas_etds/866
Included in
European History Commons, Fine Arts Commons, Other History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons