The Pilgrimage to Cythera (1717) by Jean-Antoine Watteau portrays the elegant outdoor parties, popular among the 18th century nobility. The painting depicts the period of a time and not a specific actual event.
Elegant couples performed polite behavioral and conversational rituals, where the true meanings and desires were discreetly hidden. Couples appear in their own costumes of the time, but Watteau transports them into a fantasy world - the world these people sought to achieve in the imagination.
It depicts a trip to Cythera, an island consecrated to Venus, goddess of love, which legend has landed there after her birth. This painting is one of the most beautiful fruits of Rococo, the style that dominated all arts in the first half of the 18th century.
