Homme en habit de Ballet (Man in Ballet Costume)

Etching and engraving with a design for a male ballet costume, created by Jacques LePautre after Jean I Berain. Entrusted with drawings for costumes, stage sets, and royal ceremonies at the 'Academie Royale de la Musique' since 1680, Berain's ingenious creations took acanthus and laurel leaves, palmettes and grotesques, mixing them with dancers, acrobats, monkeys and satyrs, to create his own, imaginative, theatrical world. His designs were multiplied and disseminated by means of engravings, his design motifs and manner objects becoming highly influential in the closing years of the seventeenth century. This print was, like many of his designs, possibly designed for costumes intended for the performances of the Royal Academy of Music.

The costume is made up of a knee-length tunic 'en tonnelets', with flounce skirt and richly decorated with arabesques, worn with tight breeches with acanthus leaves and arabesques, light-colored hose, and high-heeled, square-toed boots, also decorated with arabesques. The sleeves are layered: wide, slightly bell-shaped over the shoulders, revealing long, wide, scallop-edged, bell-shaped sleeves, possibly made of white lace or muslin, with small tassels hanging from the bottom, half-covering the narrow, full-length sleeves that cover the arms, decorated with the same arabesque motifs that make up the rest of the tunic. A large diademe with an open-winged bird on the front, holding a rich bundle of large, scrolling feathers, covers the head, with long, loose curls of hair floating underneath. The ballet dancer holds his arms open to the sides, with castanettes in both hands, standing in front of a park with trees and people frolicking around.