Fêtes galantes
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Fête Galante is a French term referring to some of the celebrated pursuits of the idle, rich aristocrats in the 18th century -- from 1715 until the 1770's. After the death of Louis XIV in 1715, the aristocrats of the French court abandoned the grandeur of Versailles for the more intimate townhouses of Paris where, elegantly attired, they could play and flirt and put on scenes from the Italian commedia dell'arte.
The term "fête galante" comes from the title of a painting by Antoine Watteau. Other French painters who depicted fêtes galantes included Jean-Honoré Fragonard and François Boucher. The composer Gabriel Fauré later paid a graceful musical homage to the fêtes galantes in his composition Masques et Bergamasques.
"Fête galante" in French literally means gallant feast or festival but a better translation might be "a celebration of love."
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