The painting Embarkment to Cythera was Watteau's masterpiece, one of the most well-known paintings during the Rococo era. The painting tells a wondrous story about love and the lifestyle of young aristocracies.

Cythera is a beautiful Greek island of love that is believed to be the birth place of Aphrodite. One of the most frequent questions asked about this painting is whether the young couples are heading or returning to the island of Cythera. We see the a vague outline of a city lurking in the very back, which could suggest maybe that is Cythera. But we also see a statue of Aphrodite on the top right corner saying that maybe this is indeed the island of love.

I believe that they are already at Cythera because we see this progression of love throughout the painting. The lighting of the painting makes the couple under the tree the focus point, and then further the to the left the more blurred the couples are. Let's name the couple under the tree couple 1, and then the one next to them couple 2 and then 3, etc.. We see the girl in couple 1 a lot less engaging than let's say couple 6 where the girl is grabbing on the guy's arm. Girl 1 is looking downwards looking even a little irritated, while the guy is clearly lingering on to her. By the end of it, we see pid's hovering above the boat which might be a symbolization of the love finally being complete.