The Scale of Love

This Scale of Love, around 1717, in the National Gallery London, depicts a musical courtship scene in a garden. The title plays on the musical meaning of "scale" and the weighing of amorous feelings, capturing the characteristic Watteau fusion of music and love. Watteau painted in oil on panel and canvas using luminous brushstrokes laid over careful preparation, achieving a shimmering surface that captures the play of light on silk and the atmosphere of damp parkland. He died of tuberculosis ...

The guitar-playing suitor and his companion are rendered with extraordinary refinement, their silk costumes catching light in Watteau's distinctive shimmering brushwork. The garden setting provides an atmospheric backdrop of greens and golds.