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Neuberger Museum of Art

backstory: It’s just about the looking.

Burgeoning art historians typically take a course called Methods, in which you learn varying strategies for investigating works of art.

In the fall of my junior year at Tufts, working from photographs, I studied just one painting for a whole semester—Bronzino’s An Allegory with Venus and Cupid.

The following semester, I went to London for the first time and saw it at The National Gallery. BLAM. I had studied every element from the masks to the apple to Father Time. But I hadn’t noticed how brilliant was the blue, how pearly was the skin. I couldn’t tear myself away.​

The virtual experience of the painting had been pale, as I’m afraid it will be here for you as well. But maybe you’ve seen it or can make time to do so if you’re traveling. If not, really, seeing any heart-stirring work of art in real life will suffice. It’s just about the looking.  

Tracy Fitzpatrick
Director, Neuberger Museum of Art