Cochin executed this engraving after a painting by Jean-Antoine Watteau. The painting is lost and it now exists only in this engraving. Here the Commedia dell'arte characters appear in traditional guise. The setting is quite clearly a stage, and there is a stiffness in the grouping of the actor-figures - slenderly proportioned in typically Gillot style. Yet here are all the elements out of which would be fused shortly afterwards the complete creation of Watteau's fêtes galantes.