watteau pierot Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721)

Description of Antoine Watteau’s painting Gilles

Antoine Watteau was a major French painter, a kind of prophet of the Rococo style, who favored mythical and narrative scenes. He also paid much attention to actors in their traditional roles. His paintings are usually executed with great skill and attention to detail, loaded with both meaning and characters and the minutiae from which the interiors are created.

Gilles in France refers to the familiar Pierrot, who was born in Italy, being the mask of comedy del arte. Originally his role was that of another servant, Harlequin’s eternal rival, a small cunning and dodgy one, cleverly disguising it with outward gentleness and clumsiness.

But all his plans often fell through and failed, Colombine left him for Harlequin and one day the image of Pierrot was reinvented. From the comic character he became a tragic one, gradually transforming from a shyster to the unhappy and persecuted lover.

It is in this image that Pierrot appears in Watteau’s painting. In spite of the people around him, he is alone. The play is over, everyone is busy minding their own business, and he stands on the hill with a look of confusion and incomprehension.

The lowered skyline elevates him above the others, turning the picture into a portrait and indicating how different his colleagues’ level of thinking and interests are. They are indifferent to Pierrot, preoccupied with conversation, and their role in his life is no greater than that of a statue of a faun looking serious and foolish. He is dressed in his traditional costume. The pointed hat, pushed to the back of his head, bears a vague resemblance to a halo.

Playing a tragic and misunderstood character, Pierrot remains the same in life, unnecessary, rejected by everyone and understood by no one.

He looks at the spectator sadly and as if begging, as if to suggest that it is in the power of those looking at him to relieve him of this deathly longing.