Mezzetin  1720

by Antoine Watteau

Mezzetin, a stock comic character of the Italian commedia dell'arte, became an established performer on the Paris stage. Various players were engraved in his costume, which by about 1680 comprised a striped jacket and knee-britches, a floppy hat, a ruff, and a short cape. Mezzetin was by turns interfering, devious, and lovelorn, but not languorous. His head and his large, ...
Size: 
21 3/4 x 17 in. (55.2 x 43.2 cm)
Medium: 
Oil on canvas
Credit: 
Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art