- Fêtes galantes
Fête Galante is a French term referring to some of the celebrated pursuits of the idle, rich aristocrats in the 18th century -- from 1715 until the 1770's. After the death of
Louis XIV in 1715, the aristocrats of the French court abandoned the grandeur of Versailles for the more intimate townhouses of Paris where, elegantly attired, they could play and flirt and put on scenes from the Italiancommedia dell'arte .The term "fête galante" comes from the title of a painting by
Antoine Watteau . Other French painters who depicted "fêtes galantes" includedJean-Honoré Fragonard andFrançois Boucher . The composerGabriel Fauré later paid a graceful musical homage to the "fêtes galantes" in his composition "Masques et Bergamasques ".Paul Verlaine wrote a set of poems entitled fêtes galantes which were set to music byClaude Debussy forhigh voice andpiano ."Fête galante" in French literally means gallant feast or festival but a better translation might be "a celebration of love."
ee also
*
Antoine Watteau
*François Boucher
*Jean-Honoré Fragonard
*Nicolas Lancret External links
* [http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/frgenre-watteau.shtm National Gallery of Art] The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard
* [http://www.chez.com/damienbe/galantes.htm Fêtes galantes] written by Paul Verlaine (in French)
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