Watteau, through the Cracks
Abstract
Antoine Watteau’s paintings decayed rapidly. Soon after his death, his contemporaries bemoaned the cracks ravaging his works. They regarded the problem as the product of Watteau’s restless character, noting that his shortsighted personality led him to paint improperly. A deeper explanation situates Watteau’s impatient attitude and impermanent techniques within an emerging culture of ephemeral consumption. An examination of the afterlife of Watteau’s decaying work in the form of reproduction points to an alternative understanding of permanence based less on material immutability than on commercial dissemination. Permanence has a history, and Watteau off ers insight into a crucial transition.