365 Days at the Met

February 3, 2020 Gallery 549, a loggia off of gallery 548,  is devoted primarily to French and Italian portrait busts made between 1600 and 1800. A sign explains that the gallery is meant to evoke the practice of lining palace corridors with portrait busts,  both to signify admiration for ancient Rome, where the practice originated, and to celebrate contemporary figures, whose images were recognizable although sometimes somewhat idealized. It's striking to me that I haven't heard of any of these sculptors, although their works display true mastery of the sculptor's art. Lace or crochet work on shirts and neckwear, for example, is evoked by curling surfaces and tiny holes in the marble. In a 1767 sculpture of a cardinal by Andre-Jean Lebrun, who was active in France and Poland, the cardinal wears a cassock decorated with 23 small buttons; the carving is so fine that you can practically see the stitches on the bound buttonholes as well as the pattern on the