Mezzetin

Watteau's Mezzetin of around 1717 depicts one of the stock characters of the Italian Commedia dell'Arte — the love-struck musician in harlequin-striped costume — serenading an absent or indifferent beloved. Mezzetin's back-turned posture and the ambiguous statue that may represent his unresponsive love create one of Watteau's most melancholic images, the performer's devotion meeting no visible response. The painting is among his most personal works, the actor's unrequited performance suggesting the painter's own aesthetic dilemma: the art that creates beauty for an audience that remains essentially unmoved.

Watteau renders the solitary musician with extraordinary sensitivity, his upturned face expressing the mingled hope and sadness of unrequited love. The shimmering striped silk costume and the lush garden setting are painted with his characteristic feathery brushwork.