WATTEAU, Jean-Antoine
(b. 1684, Valenciennes, d. 1721, Nogent-sur-Marne)

The Festival of Love (detail)

c. 1717
Oil on canvas
Gemäldegalerie, Dresden

The statue of Venus, seen at right, is also to be found in the Pilgrimage to Cythera (Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin). The sculpture in the Berlin picture is integrated into the overall composition and seems smaller as a whole; it appears curiously isolated and out of proportion in the Dresden painting. The presence of the sculpture in the two paintings was important for the dating of the Dresden work; because the Berlin painting has been dated at around 1718/19, it has been assumed that the Festival of Love was painted at about the same time. Its general stylistic features support such a dating.