목동들

Watteau painted this around 1717, just after the death of Louis XIV had loosened the stiff grandeur of the old court and Paris slipped into the lighter, more pleasure-minded mood of the Regency. It shows exactly that mood, well-dressed city people out in the country pretending to be shepherds, one couple dancing a minuet to a piper while others whisper and push a swing. Watteau had just been admitted to the Academy for inventing this kind of scene, the fete galante, a category made up to fit him. Off at the far right, half hidden in the bushes, he tucked in a genuine shepherd with real sheep, quietly measuring the play-acting against the thing itself.