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Seeing Clearly: Eyeglasses and the Scholar's Eye
Seeing Clearly: Eyeglasses and the Scholar's Eye
From cardinal to humanist to financier—how eyeglasses became the mark of intellectual authority and careful observation across five centuries of art
15 minutes
3 stops
Begin at El Greco's Saint Jerome in the Robert Lehman Collection, then move to Holbein's portrait of Erasmus, and conclude with Degas's study of a financier wearing spectacles at the stock exchange.
Galleries: 958 → 953 → 816