Design for the Divertissement from "La Pastorale" (First Entrée of the opera-ballet "Les Muses" by Danchet and Campra") (1703): Art, History and Details

Design for the Divertissement from "La Pastorale" (First Entrée of the opera-ballet "Les Muses" by Danchet and Campra") (1703) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jean I Bérain (French, 1640–1711).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This drawing represents the elaborate stage set for the opera-ballet Les Muses that premiered in 1703 at the Opéra, the most prestigious public theater in Paris. In a city that thrived on spectacle, the opera-ballet was one of the most fashionable forms of entertainment in the 18th century. Berain’s drawing relates to the third scene in the first of four acts, "La Pastorale," in which shepherds and shepherdesses pay homage to deities in a wooded grove. The celebration, accompanied by flutes and a musette (small bagpipe) comprised a lighthearted musical interlude or divertissement, an indispensable component of the opera-ballet.

Object facts

• Title: Design for the Divertissement from "La Pastorale" (First Entrée of the opera-ballet "Les Muses" by Danchet and Campra")
• Date: 1703
• Creator attribution: Jean I Bérain (French, 1640–1711)
• Culture: France
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: pen and black ink and brush and gray wash with red, blue, and yellow wash, with graphite
• Dimensions: Sheet: 35.1 x 46.3 cm (13 13/16 x 18 1/4 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2008.379

Collection credit

Bequest of Muriel Butkin

Further reading listed by the museum

• Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.