The Embarkation for Cythera

Elegant couples in silks linger on a wooded shore at golden dusk, reluctant to leave the island of Cythera, sacred to Venus, as cupids wheel overhead and a gilded boat waits; a row of lovers winds from a flowered shrine down toward the water. Watteau submitted this as his reception piece to the French Academy, and it gave its name to a new genre, the 'fete galante.' Now in the Louvre, it is wistful and fleeting - love, pleasure, and the passing of the perfect afternoon caught in a haze of shimmering, melancholy light.