The French Comedians

The costumes and repertoire of French comedians was distinct from Watteau’s favored Italian commedia dell’arte. This painting’s principal male figure is dressed in an old-fashioned, formal costume that in the eighteenth century would have been appropriate for a subject from antiquity. Typical of Watteau, however, the scene is entirely imaginary and does not align with any known opera or play. The entrance from backstage of Crispin, a character from the commedia dell’arte, underscores the improbability of the scene. X-radiographs show a preparatory underdrawing on the canvas, probably by a specialist architecture painter, a practice Watteau often employed to create such stage-like spaces.