FETE CHAMPETRE

(French: rural feast), in painting, representation of a rural feast or open-air entertainment. Although the term fte galante (gallant feast) is sometimes used synonymously with fte champtre, it is also used to refer to a specific kind of fte champtre: a more graceful, usually aristocratic scene in which groups of idly amorous, relaxed, well-dressed figures are depicted in a pastoral setting. A forerunner of the highly developed French fte champtre of the 18th century may be seen in the art of 16th-century Venice and specifically in Le Concert champtre (Louvre, Paris), a painting attributed by some to Giorgione. Antoine Watteau (d. 1721) brought the fte galante to its highest point when he created a mysterious, melancholy, dreamlike world populated by well-dressed people who flirt and play gracefully in parklike surroundings. The pastoral setting emphasizes the essential innocence and spontaneity of the participants, who are unafflicted by the stiffness imposed by the conventions of formal society. Eroticism is subtly rather than openly expressed. Fte galantes continued to be depicted by Watteau's pupils Nicolas Lancret and Jean-Baptiste Pater. The fte champtre and fte galante ended with the termination of the Rococo period in the late 18th century.