by Susan Griffith

The American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies awarded Georgia Cowart, Case Western Reserve University chair and associate professor of music, the James L. Clifford Prize for "the best article regarding any aspect of eighteenth century culture."

photo by Dan Milner Georgia Cowart

She was honored for her ground-breaking scholarly research in the article "Watteau's Pilgrimage to Cythera and the Subversive Utopia of the Opera-Ballet," published by The Art Bulletin.

The Prize Committee stated that Cowart's article was "a rich reinterpretation of one work-Watteau's Pilgrimage to Cythera-through a wonderful exploration of multiple cultural forms and meanings, in a manner that sets a model for an interdisciplinary socio-political reading of a cultural artifact."

"More specifically, the essay's goal is to recuperate the multiple subversive early-eighteenth century connotations of the motif of Cythera. This motif, it turns out, drew its power as the ideal symbol for utopian protest from currents flowing from deep reservoirs of seventeenth century political resistance into the mainstream of eighteenth century French culture," added the committee.

The committee members continued, "Subsequently, however, this potential of Cythera and of the closely linked fetes galantes was lost from view and memory as it came to be associated, mistakenly, with ancient-regime frivolity. Cowart demonstrates this subversive potential through an ingenious leap to the opera-ballet, which she sensitively unpacks for its implicit anti-absolutist and anti-patriarchal connotations, before linking it back to Watteau's painting-which thus assumes now a completely new meaning."

Cowart described her research in the meaning behind Antoine Watteau's painting and the opera-ballet as "thrilling detective work in the humanities" as she uncovered how the propaganda machine that Louis XIV created was eventually turned upon the king in the plots of opera-ballet.

Her first recognition of the links between Watteau's painting and the opera-ballets was an epiphany for the musicologist, who had seen the Watteau painting at the Louvre while taking a diversion from her research at the Paris Opera House and realized a potential connection between the two art forms. Her continued research verified her first suspicions.

"Louis allowed no forms of public protest," stated Cowart, "but through the entertainments in the public sphere, a group of artists banded together to keep alive the notion of freedom and equality until the eve of the revolution."

In addition to The Art Bulletin, Cowart published her findings in the Journal of the American Musicological Society. Both publications are flagship journals in the field of the arts.

The American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, a non-profit and educational group, gives outs awards, prizes and fellowships for research pertaining to the 1700s. James L. Clifford, the prize's namesake, was the founder of The Johnson News Letter and the Society's third president.

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