Art, Dance, and the Body in French Culture of the Ancien Régime

Book excerpt: Art, Dance, and the Body in the French Culture of the Ancien Régime is an interdisciplinary study of images produced in France during the reign of Louis XIV. Focusing on the relationship between art and dance during this period, Sarah Cohen examines how depictions of the aristocracy, which put emphasis on the body, project political and social ideas. Cohen analyses complex modes of physical presentation, including ballet, masquerading, and etiquette, together with the paintings and drawings of Antoine Watteau; the decorative work of Charles Le Brun, as well as theater, garden, and interior design. She demonstrates the striking parallels among these different visual forms and uses these interrelationships to prove the varied and changing significance of the 'artful body' within French culture of the ancien régime.