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The charm of the long-gone style

This article is dedicated to recreation of XVIII century▓s environment in the ballet ⌠The Trial of Damis■ (music by A. Glazunov), staged by balletmaster and choreographer Marius Petipa in St. Petersburg in 1900. Passeistic motifs and aura of scenery by P. Lambin and costumes by I. Vsevolozhsky reflected their passion for the oeuvre of outstanding French artist Antoine Watteau.

In 1894 renowned French poet and dramatist Edmond Rostand in the introduction to ⌠Les Romanesques■ (which has been adapted as the highly successful musical comedy ⌠The Fantasticks■) wished his personages to be dressed in ⌠Watteau▓s costumes■, as characters, created by Watteau ideally suited the plot of the comedy. Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684√1721) was a French painter whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in color and movement (in the tradition of Correggio and Rubens), and revitalized the waning Baroque idiom, which eventually became known as Rococo. He is credited with inventing the genre of ⌠fetes galantes■: scenes of bucolic and idyllic charm, suffused with an air of Theaterity. Some of his best known subjects were drawn from the world of Italian comedy and ballet.

I.A. Vsevolozhsky. Sketch of the guest▓s costume. St. Petersburg Theater Library. Published for the first time [zoom (35k)]

At the turn of the centuries I. Vsevolozhsky did his best to place phantom and illusive Watteau▓s characters in the real world of Imperial Mariinsky theatre in the 1900 ballet ⌠The Trial of Damis■ (or ⌠Les Ruses d▓Amour or The Pranks of Love or Lady Soubrette■).

After watching the ballet, art critic V. Svetlov recommended that Petersburg dwellers who rarely visited the Hermitage and who were not familiar with the oeuvre of Watteau should go to the Mariinsky theatre and get acquainted with the gallant age watching ⌠The Trial of Damis■.

Watteau▓s influence on the arts (not only painting, but the decorative arts, costume, film, poetry, music) was more extensive than that of almost any other XVIII century artist. According to the 1911 Britannica, ⌠in his treatment of the landscape background and of the atmospheric surroundings of the figures can be found the germs of Impressionism■. The ⌠Watteau dress■, a long, sacklike dress with loose pleats hanging from the shoulder at the back, similar to those worn by many of the women in his paintings, is named after him. A revived vogue for him began in Europe during the Victorian era and was later encapsulated by members of ⌠World of Art■, including many scene designers.

Though being a connoisseur of the XVIII century art, Vsevolzhsky had to take into consideration many important nuances, as XVIII century was not only an age of gallantry, beauty spots, powdered wigs and fans, and Watteau▓s oeuvre was many-sided and complicated as well. Still, Vsevolozhsky managed to catch and render the unique atmosphere of the age without turning into an imitator.

The almost epidemic passion for the art and culture of the past in Europe was noticed by many prominent writers, poets and artists including Mikhail Kuzmin, who noted that people tried to stop the flow of time and to lodge everything that was gone in the memory. Thus, Vsevolozhsky strived to save and preserve values that were the most important at the Watteau▓s age: devotion to beauty and elegancy, delicate irony and intimacy.

The plot of the ballet ⌠The Trial of Damis■ is quite simple: Damis comes to Countess Lucinda to ask for the hand of her daughter Isabella. In order to test the feelings of her future husband, Isabella dresses as a soubrette and coquets with Damis. Damis is enchanted with the young girl. Then, Countess Lucinda introduces Damis soubrette Marinette as her daughter. Though trying to be gallant with his bride, but seeing her clumsiness Damis chooses the false soubrette Isabella and asks her to run away with him. In the final scene, the Countess explains Damis the truth and, being pleased with his honesty and sincerity, gives Isabella in marriage.

I.A. Vsevolozhsky. Sketch of the costume of Isabella▓s friend. St. Petersburg Theater Library. Published for the first time [zoom (37k)]

The author of the libretto was Marius Petipa. Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa (1818√1910) √ was a ballet dancer, teacher, and choreographer. Marius Petipa is often given the title ⌠Father of Classical Ballet■, and is cited nearly unanimously by the most noted artists of the classical ballet to be the most influential balletmaster and choreographer that has ever lived (among them ≈ George Balanchine, who cited Petipa as his primary influence). The ballets of Petipa were lavish spectacles that could have only been produced in the opulent atmosphere of the Imperial Russian court, which was at the time the wealthiest and most resplendent in all Europe. The treasury of the Tsar lavished over 10,000,000 roubles a year on the Imperial Ballet, opera, and the Imperial Theater School, home of the Imperial Ballet School (today the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet). Every season Petipa presented a new ballet, as well as revivals of older works, the staging of dance sections for operas, and the preparations of various galas and celebrations for royal nuptials, birthdays, official state visits, or for visiting Royalty.

Due to the pastoral plot, Petipa was able to stage a kind of retrospect of old dances as well as a performance of traveling troupe of actors ≈ the favourite Watteau▓s characters. The ballet is based on mystification and includes changing of dresses and disguises. The scenery of the ballet (created by P.B. Lambin, now is kept at the St. Petersburg Theater Library) was inspired by a painting ⌠Le colin-maillard■ (Playing Blindman▓s Buff, the Palace Sanssouci in Potsdam) by French artist Nicolas Lancret. Most likely, Lambin took a print from the painting as an example, as in the original Lancret▓s piece the splendidly decorated marble staircase, the sculptural group and the rococo fountain is located in the right side of the picture, but not in the left one, as in Lambin▓s scenery. Such motif with a staircase and a fountain can be seen in other artist▓s works. Similar landscape is depicted in the pictures ⌠L'Automne■ (engraving by Tardieu), ⌠La Terre■ (engraving by Cochin) and ⌠Le Feu■ (engraving by Audran). Probably, Vsevolozhsky used details of those pictures as prototypes for the costume sketches (for instance, the dress of Isabella▓s friend was copied from the woman▓s garment in the picture ⌠Le Feu■, while the sketch of Lucinda▓s costume was inspired by the painting ⌠L'Automne■.

Lambin freely interpreted Lancret▓s composition. In the sketch for the scenery, he also adopted the motif of a swing hung between the two trees from Watteau▓s picture ⌠Les Bergers■ (Berlin, Schloss Charlottenburg). Creating an airy landscape with subtle tree crowns and elegant architectural structures, Lambin managed to recreate the atmosphere of a XVIII century gallant feast. Alas, when looking at the old photograph of the executed scenery, it can be seen that it has lost gentle transparency and delicate evanescence of the sketch. The premiere of ⌠The Trial of Damis■ for the Imperial Court took place at the Imperial theatre of the Hermitage on January 17, 1900. The backcloth▓s rococo ornamental frame was created after the sketch of Lambin too (now the frame is kept at the St. Petersburg Theater Library).

Soon the ballet▓s first night was held at the Imperial Mariinsky Theater (January 23, 1900, starring Italian ballerina Pierina Legnani). However, according to Y. Engel, the refined ⌠chamber■ ballet, reminding of a small exquisite picture with lots of minor details, was ⌠completely lost■ on the grand stage of Mariinsky Theater. Eleven years later A.L. Volynsky was greatly impressed by famous Russian ballerina Tamara Karsavina dancing the part of Isabella (still, he admitted that her superb pas ⌠somehow disappeared in the vacuum of colossal Theater hangar■. Nevertheless, the talented trio of creators of the ballet (costumes by I. Vsevolozhsky, choreography by Marius Petipa, music by A.K. Glazunov) managed to preserve the evanescent atmosphere of a gallant fete.

Aleksandr Konstantinovich Glazunov (1865√1936) was a major Russian composer, as well as an influential music teacher. Glazunov was born in St Petersburg. He studied music under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, at the recommendation of Mily Balakirev.

Writing music for the ballet, the composer had to perform a complicated task ≈ adapt dances of various styles (passepied, courante, sarabande, and gavotte) and the rococo scenery by Lambin. That combination proved to be quite artificial due to specific attitude of Vsevolozhsky to the past ages. Vsevolozhsky▓s stylization of the Watteau▓s epoch was more a copy, an imitation, rather than a ⌠dialog■ of the modern and the gallant art (unlike splendid scenery and costumes to ⌠Le Pavillon d▓Armide■ by celebrated stage-designer A.N. Benois). When speaking about ⌠The Trial of Damis■, A.L. Volynsky noted that Benois was probably the best candidate to recreate the fine style of Antoine Watteau and Nicolas Lancret properly.

Tamara Karsavina acknowledged that she always felt sympathy towards the XVIII epoch and her character Isabella, due to Vsevolozhsky▓s passion for the age▓s style and his deep understanding of the world created by Watteau.

In the sketch for a guest▓s costume (St. Petersburg Theater Library) Vsevolozhsky put a note ⌠D▓apres Watteau■ (after Watteau). Indeed, a similar character dancing with castanets is depicted in two of Watteau▓s pictures ⌠Le bal champetre■ (France, private collection) and ⌠Les plaisirs du bal■ (London, Dulwich, the Picture Gallery). Many characters in Vsevolzhsky▓s sketches are clearly identified with personages of Watteau▓s works. For instance, the guests and the traveling actors from the ballet ⌠borrowed■ costumes from ⌠Les comediens italien■ (The National Gallery of Art, Washington), ⌠Les fetes venitiennes■ (The National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh), ⌠L'amour au theatre francais■ (Berlin, the State Museum) ⌠Les plaisirs du bal■, ⌠Le bal champetre■, ⌠L'enchanteur■ (Musee des Beaux-Arts, Troyes, France), while Isabella▓s friends wore dresses of ⌠L▓ Aventuriere■ (Musee des Beaux-Arts, Troyes, France) and ⌠Les deux cousines■ (Musee du Louvre, Paris). However, Vsevolozhsky did not concentrate on the Age of Gallantry only. Following the author▓s idea, soubrette Marinette was dressed in the costume of E.I. Nelidova (the student of Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens) from the renowned portrait by D.G. Levitsky (The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg).

I.A. Vsevolozhsky. Sketch of the costume of Damis. St. Petersburg Theater Library. Published for the first time [zoom (35k)]

A 1735 print depicts a man and a woman exercising minuet pas; their poses are identical to the ones of the characters from Watteau▓s paintings ⌠Les fetes venitiennes■, ⌠L▓Indifferent■ (Musee du Louvre, Paris) and ⌠Les plaisirs du bal■. It is obvious that Vsevolozhsky copied costumes for the ballet ⌠The Trial of Damis■ from those Watteau▓s works. Indeed, the artist was deeply in love with the Age of Gallantry and appreciated music and dances of the time keenly.

Notably, when staging dances, balletmaster Marius Petipa introduced postures of characters depicted by Watteau, Lancret and Vsevolozhsky in real movements of ballerinas and dancers. In the 1900 photograph of an episode from ⌠The Trial of Damis■, it is seen that O.O. Preobrazhenskaya (as Isabella) dances the Camargo variation wearing the dress from the painting ⌠La danseuse Camargo■ by Lancret (The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg), and stands almost in the same posture as the character in the picture. P.A. Gerdt (as Damis) makes the same pa, and wears the costume similar to the one of the personage from Watteau▓s ⌠L▓ Indifferent■ (like in Vsevolozhsky▓s sketch to the costume of Damis, which is now kept at the St. Petersburg Theater Library). According to A.L. Volynsky, Tamara Karsavina in the Camargo costume managed to personify the famous picture from the Hermitage.

The color palette of costumes for ⌠The Trial of Damis■ includes white (Isabella), violet and purple, yellow and brown (Isabella▓s friends), light blue, red and pink (the traveling actors), green, crimson and purple (Lucinda▓s guests). Interestingly, often being familiar only with prints after Watteau▓s works, Vsevolozhsky chose the coloring of costumes by himself. Thus, some of the costumes are identical to the ones depicted in Watteau▓s pictures (⌠Les comediens italien■, ⌠L'enchanteur■, ⌠L▓ Aventuriere■, etc.), while the others (according to A. Pleshcheev) were inferior to original camisoles and coats in Watteau▓s paintings.

The costumes were made by I.I. Kaffi after detailed instructions concerning the required materials and coloring. Notably, at the time an artist could not paint a fabric in a certain color, but had to purchase an already colored one in a shop (for instance, at the famed English shop on Bolshaya Morskaya Street in St. Petersburg). All those factors resulted in a certain dissonance of the scenery, costumes and the atmosphere of the ballet in general.

⌠The Trial of Damis■ is one of the last ballets staged by Marius Petipa and do not resemble his most important ballets that brought him fame and glory. The one-act ballet represents a line of genre sketches in the open air: dances, masquerades and the final feast dedicated to the engagement of Damis and Isabella. According to V. Gaevsky, the French culture always attracted Petipa, especially in his late life; being a devoted gallomaniac, Vsevolozhsky supported Petipa▓s passion as well.

In ⌠The Trial of Damis■ Marius Petipa attempted to set a new milestone in the development of Russian ballet ≈ one-act ballets. V. Gaevsky believes that Petipa managed to introduce a new approach to modern ballet later developed by M.M. Fokin and L.S. Bakst. In 1900 and 1902, Petipa staged several one-act ballets at the Hermitage Theater. According to Gaevsky, their titles could easily appear in posters created by members of art group ⌠Mir Isskustva■ (⌠World of Art■, sponsored and inspired by Sergei Dyagilev): ⌠The Trial of Damis■, ⌠The Heart of the Marquis■ and ⌠Romance of the Rosebud and the Butterfly■ (1904, the opening night did not take place for some reasons). Some believe that the last creation of Petipa precedes the celebrated ⌠The Phantom of the Rose■ by Fokin and Bakst ≈ founders of the ⌠new ballet■.

Vsevolozhsky▓s search for the long-gone age and obsessive passion for XVIII century brought him very close to the mentality of the Silver Age. ⌠The Trial of Damis■ by Vsevolozhsky, Petipa, Glazunov and Lambin was a unique attempt to recreate the charming aura of the gallant age in our modern life.