Existing comment:
Mechanical painting with scene changes
1710
Attributed to Antoine Watteau
This mechanical marvel bears a dedication to the eldest son of King Louis XIV of France, signed with the name of celebrated French painter Antoine Watteau. It belongs to a tradition of artworks equipped with scenes that changed to surprise viewers. The king collected moving paintings of this type, called tableaux changeants. The masquerade ball composition is pierced with six openings. Mounted behind it are six toothed wheels that can rotate via a clockwork mechanism to reveal different scenes of musicians, dancers, and gamblers. Watteau is known for his depictions of figures in aristocratic dress frolicking in lush imaginary settings of seemingly everlasting festivity, a theme known as the fête galante. |