Mezzetino was a comedy character, based on Harlequin but with his own distinctive costume, who was introduced for the first time by the Théâtre italien de Paris actor Angelo Costantini on October 16, 1683. Constantini's expressive face allowed him to portray the role without a mask, a tradition kept alive by all successive Mezzetinos. That novelty attracted Watteau, who featured Mezzetino in several of his works.[2] In the picture, Mezzetino is playing his guitar and singing, his eyes lifted as if towards an unseen balcony. The statue of Venus behind him is facing away, suggesting that his feelings are not shared by the lady she represents. Although the model for Mezzetino is not known, the fact that Jean de Jullienne, who, while selling a number of Watteau's works through his life, still kept Mezzetino, suggests he may have fulfilled the role.[3]
Provenance
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^Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1952). Art Treasures of the Metropolitan (exhibition catalogue). New York: H. N. Abrams. p. 230 – via the Internet Archive.
Adhémar, Hélène (1950). Watteau; sa vie, son oeuvre (in French). Includes L’univers de Watteau, an introduction by René Huyghe. Paris: P. Tisné. pp. 100, 119, 127, 230; cat. no. 206; pl. 144 (detail), and colorpl. 145. OCLC853537.
Androsov, S. O. (2018). Western European Painting of the Fourteenth–Early Twentieth Centuries in the Hermitage Collection (art book) (in Russian). Saint Petersburg: State Hermitage Publishers. p. 26. ISBN978-5-93572-741-3. OCLC1110195118.
Baetjer, Katharine, ed. (2009). Watteau, Music, and Theater. Rosenberg, Pierre (an introduction by); Cowart, Georgia J. (an essay by). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 44–47, 84–85. ISBN978-1-58839-335-7.
Baejter, Katherine (2010). "Mezzetin". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved May 23, 2020.
Bailey, Colin B., ed. (2003). The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting. New Haven, London, Ottawa: Yale University Press, National Gallery of Canada. pp. 140, 141, 357. ISBN0-88884-767-X. OCLC51330581.
Banks, Oliver T. (1977). Watteau and the North: Studies in the Dutch and Flemish Baroque Influence on French Rococo Painting. New York, London: Garland. pp. 121, 183–84, figs. 35, 119. OCLC1075255658.
Barker, G. W. (1939). Antoine Watteau. London: Duckworth. p. 137. OCLC556817570.
Benois, A. N. (1997) [originally published ca. 1911]. Путеводитель по картинной галерее Императорского Эрмитажа (in Russian). Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo. ISBN5-85200-213-5.
Gammon, Martin (2018). Deaccessioning and Its Discontents: A Critical History. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. p. 286. ISBN9780262037587. OCLC995805826.
Garnier-Pelle, Nicole (1995). Chantilly, musée Condé. Peintures du xviiie siècle. Inventaire des collections publiques de France (in French). Vol. 38. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux. pp. 134, 152–153. OCLC33264438.
Mathey, Jacques (1959). Antoine Watteau. Peintures réapparues inconnues ou négligées par les historiens (in French). Paris: F. de Nobele. pp. 36, 55, 68. OCLC954214682.
Mirimonde, Albert Pomme de (November 1961). "Les sujets musicaux chez Antoine Watteau". Gazette des Beaux-Arts (in French). 6.58 (1114): 249–288. OCLC888153049.
Mollett, John William (1883). Watteau. Illustrated Biographies of the Great Artists. London: S. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington. p. 66, cat. no. 88. OCLC557720162 – via the Internet Archive.
Montagni, E. C. (1968). L'opera completa di Watteau. Classici dell'arte (in Italian). Vol. 21. Introduction by Giovanni Macchia. Milano: Rizzoli. p. 122; cat. no. 211. OCLC1006284992. For the English edition, see Camesasca 1971.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
Opperman, Hal (June 1988). "Watteau 1684-1721 by Margaret Morgan Grasselli, Pierre Rosenberg and Nicole Parmentier". The Art Bulletin. 70 (2): 354–359. JSTOR3051127.
Pilon, Edmond (1912). Watteau et son école. Bruxelles: G. van Oest & cie. p. 95, ill. opp. p. 92. OCLC1158281157 – via the Internet Archive.
Plax, Julie Anne (2000). Watteau and the Cultural Politics of Eighteenth-Century France. Cambridge etc.: Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-64268-X. OCLC803847893.
Posner, Donald (1984). Antoine Watteau. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 57–58, 206, 208, 224–25, 258, 288 n. 16, colorpl. 48. ISBN0-8014-1571-3. OCLC10736607 – via the Internet Archive.
Raymond, Florence, ed. (2013). Antoine Watteau (1684-1721): la leçon de musique (exhibition catalogue) (in French). Paris: Skira Flammarion. ISBN978-2-0812-9583-4. OCLC934385505.
Sterling, Charles (1958) [first published in 1957]. Great French Painting in the Hermitage. Translated from French by Christopher Ligota. New York: Harry N. Abrams. p. 231 n. 12. OCLC598217.
Zimmermann, E. Heinrich[in German] (1912). Watteau: des Meisters Werke in 182 Abbildungen. Klassiker der Kunst (in German). Vol. 21. Stuttgart, Leipzig: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt. pp. 41, 187. OCLC561124140.