The Eyeglasses 1719

Curator: Ah, Claude Gillot's "The Eyeglasses," a tiny etching—the plate is just over 8 by 10 centimeters, part of his "Fables Nouvelles." It’s in the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: Gosh, it’s so busy! A teeming crowd, and then these figures floating above. It feels like a dream, or maybe a theatrical spectacle. Curator: Gillot was very interested in the theater, in commedia dell'arte. His work offers commentary on social rituals and the changing tastes of his time. Editor: Right, it's fable, so there's a moral dimension. I'm trying to untangle who everyone is. The figure offering the glasses looks like… wisdom, perhaps? Curator: Could be. "The Eyeglasses," of course, suggests insight, enlightenment. It's an allegory about how we perceive the world, the lenses through which we understand it. Editor: It makes you wonder, doesn't it? What are my own eyeglasses? What biases am I not even aware of? Curator: Precisely. Gillot prompts us to consider the illusions we embrace. Editor: So true. Art is like a mirror that makes you examine your reality from a new perspective.