Delimited World
Mezzetin By Jean-Antoine Watteau 
An offbeat book that I bought for three dollars at the Goddard book fair was this one by art critic Jed Perl. It's about his favorite artist and what caught my eye was that he wrote the book in alphabetical sections. My feelings about writing alphabetically is that it propels you off the ground in a way you never expected to fly.
Here's an excerpt from the book. It's the first entry: Actors. And it relates to the painting above, a portrayal of a known clownish actor sitting in front of a set.
"For Watteau, life is a casting call, an audition, a rehearsal, a coaching session, an intermission, an opening night party, a day spent in idleness after the play has shut down. Although Watteau's paintings are saturated with the life of the theater...the more I look at his paintings, the more forcibly it's brought to mind how few of his characters are actually onstage. The strictly delimited world of the stage is too readily comprehensible to really interest Watteau. An actor onstage is a personality, a figure, and Watteau is fascinated, above all else, by the impossibility of ever being sure of who you are, at least for more than a very brief time. He is a master of in-between situations, less interested in life as a stage than in the preparations for going onstage..."
Here's an excerpt from the book. It's the first entry: Actors. And it relates to the painting above, a portrayal of a known clownish actor sitting in front of a set.
"For Watteau, life is a casting call, an audition, a rehearsal, a coaching session, an intermission, an opening night party, a day spent in idleness after the play has shut down. Although Watteau's paintings are saturated with the life of the theater...the more I look at his paintings, the more forcibly it's brought to mind how few of his characters are actually onstage. The strictly delimited world of the stage is too readily comprehensible to really interest Watteau. An actor onstage is a personality, a figure, and Watteau is fascinated, above all else, by the impossibility of ever being sure of who you are, at least for more than a very brief time. He is a master of in-between situations, less interested in life as a stage than in the preparations for going onstage..."
posted by rabbi neil fleischmann @ 9:05 AM
2 Comments:
I wonder how Perl knew all that, about Watteau's intentions.
He has his way of talking, but in a nutshell I think he's saying one point: that this artist captured a lot of performers in the moments when they weren't performing. And I think He says that based on a familiarity with the limited work of this painter, who died young.
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