The Museum · the collection
Mezzetin
Antoine Watteau, ca. 1718–20. Paris, France.
Thirty works are on view at a time, ten to a room. Every day at midnight UTC, the ten that have hung longest go back into storage and ten others come out, so each work hangs for three days and then rests for three. A work always returns to the same place on the same wall.
Mezzetin was a stock character from Italian comic theater: a hopeful servant always pining for someone. Here he sits on a garden bench in his striped costume and ruffled collar, playing a guitar and singing, his face turned up with longing. The song seems to be for someone out of sight. In the shadowy garden behind him, a stone statue turns its back. Watteau painted dreamy outdoor scenes of music and theater, and he had a gift for small, tender moments. The colors are soft rose, gray and green, and the light falls on the costume. It is a painting about longing that is gentle rather than sad.
Look closely
- Look at his face. What is he feeling?
- Look at his hands on the guitar. Is he strumming or plucking?
- Find the statue in the garden behind him.
While you sit
Someone is singing a song in a garden for someone who isn’t there. You can listen in.
Your seat in the galleries: a weathered stone garden bench with a faded rose cushion, just like his.
About the work
- Title
- Mezzetin
- Artist
- Antoine Watteau
- Date
- ca. 1718–20
- From
- Paris, France
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 21 3/4 x 17 in. (55.2 x 43.2 cm)
- Rights
- Public domain
- Image
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access (CC0)
- Record
- The museum's page for this work
The words on this page were written for the campus, not taken from the museum's label.
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