Claude Gillot was an painter, engraver & draughtsman with a keen intelligence and spontaneoous decorative style that endured him to the courts of Louis XIV and Louis XV. His work forshaddowed the Rococo period and he passsed on his influenced his pupils,among them Watteau. His theatrical designs for scenery and costumes of the Paris Opera carried over to elaborate Comedia delll Arte fantasy costumes for the Fetes Galante and Fetes Champetre of the royal court. In these elaborately designed costumes idle rich French aristocracy could play at pastoral fanatsies and flirt with their identity safely hidden behind masks.
