Example artist dissertation topic 3:

Balletic influence in the posing of Jean Antoine Watteau’s figures.

The influence of the ballet and opera can be seen in the staging and costume of Watteau’s paintings; this dissertation explores the degree to which individual figures demonstrate balletic poses. Although much of Watteau’s work is associated with Comedia dell’Arte, it is suggested by this thesis that his relationship with the opéra ballet informed much of the posing of figures throughout his works, fusing the different disciplines of arts not only through staging but posing. In addition to exploring human poses, the thesis also analyses the poses of inanimate objects, such as trees, for example, in Réunion en plein air (1719).

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Borenius, T. (1937). ‘Le Rêve de l’Artiste by Antoine Watteau’, The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 71(413), pp. 60-62.
• Cowart, G. (2001). ‘Watteau’s Pilgrimage to Cythera and the subversive utopia of the opera-ballet’, The Art Bulletin, Vol. 83(3), pp. 461-478.
• Stonely, P. (2007). A queer history of the ballet. Abingdon: Routledge.