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Berkshires Happenings
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Through Jan. 21
Consuming Passion: Fragonard's Allegories of Love
Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, 225 South St., Williamstown
When the great 18th-century French painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard died in 1806, he had long ceased to be a central figure in the Parisian art world. His most characteristic work — brightly hued and fluidly painted pictures of courting aristocrats, scenes of rustic life, pleasure gardens, and erotic mythologies made in the 1760s and 1770s — seemed irrelevant after the political, social, and cultural upheavals of the French Revolution. Yet his obituary in the Journal de Paris lamented that, “the French school has lost a justly admired painter,” whose works associated him with “the very idea of the Graces.” This exhibition explores a less familiar aspect of Fragonard’s career. “The Fountain of Love”and “The Sacrifice of the Rose”are shown together with related paintings, drawings and prints produced in the 1780s, when his work underwent a profound change. Darker in palette, emotionally rich, obscure in meaning, these mysterious works differ radically from the artist’s most famous pictures. They demonstrate how his painting evolved as he responded to new stylistic trends during this tumultuous period of French history.
Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday
Admission: Free Nov 1-May 31
Info: (413) 458-2303, www.clarkart.edu
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Central and Western Happenings
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 Through Jan. 31
Westboro Gallery Show
Tatnuck Bookseller & Café, 18 Lyman St., Westborough
“Pottery, Tapestry, Watercolor: Three Mediums, One Artist,” works by Carol Mecagni, will be featured in The Westboro Gallery’s large satellite exhibition space at Tatnuck Bookseller & Café. Works by other gallery members will be on display concurrently. Ms. Mecagni is a visual artist who started out painting with watercolors, who has been a freelance tapestry weaver and an illustrator of children’s books, and who currently concentrates on her interest in pottery. In whatever the medium of choice, she uses the same visual language: the beauty of the natural world – flowers, leaves, hills, rocks – all with an emphasis on texture, pattern and shape. The Hopkinton resident, who has taught art in various public and private schools, always has maintained a studio. She continues to use watercolor as a sketchbook for her pottery designs, but spends most days at the potter’s wheel making decorative utilitarian objects.
Hours: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. daily, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday
Info: (508) 870-0110 gallery; (508) 366-4959 Tatnuck; www.westborogallery.com
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Greater Boston Happenings
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 Through Jan. 6
“Shy Boy, She Devil, and ISIS: The Art of Conceptual Craft, Selections from the Wornick Collection”
Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston
“She Devil” demonstrates ceramicist Michael Lucero's departure into mixed materials. Inspired by the colorful fibers of the Missoni knitting factory in Faenza, Italy, Mr. Lucero wrapped wool yarn around the head of this kneeling form, while glazing the bottom half with dripping polychrome colors. Encompassing works of art in a variety of media, this exhibition features nearly 120 highlights from the distinguished collection of Ronald C. and Anita L. Wornick of California. Beginning in 1985, the Wornicks assembled a major collection of contemporary decorative arts, primarily by American artists but also including European, Australian, and Asian artists. The exhibition, on view in the Foster Gallery, includes sculptural wood objects by artists including David Ellsworth and Michelle Holzapfel, important ceramics by Michael Lucero and Sergei Isupov, and glass works by Marvin Lipofsky and Richard Jolley. Furniture, metalwork, sculpture, and fiber art round out the collection.
Hours: 10 a.m.-4:45 p.m. Mon., Tues., Sat. & Sun.; 10 a.m.-9:45 p.m. Wed.-Fri.
Admission: $17 adults; $15 seniors and student age 18-plus; free ages 17 and under
Info: (617) 267-9300, www.mfa.org
 Through Jan. 27
Napoleon and the Art of the Empire Style, 1800-1815
Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston
Named for the Napoleonic Empire at the beginning of the 19th century, the Empire style is one of the grandest and most opulent in the history of decorative arts. Designs inspired by Greco-Roman antiquity were enlivened with bold colors, costly and elaborately worked materials, a massive scale, and ornate decoration that included animal and fantastical figures, such as lions and griffons, and symbolic references to Napoleon’s reign. Throughout his political career, Napoleon championed the Empire style, which became the embodiment of the new political order and an integral part of his program to legitimize his reign and promote the arts and economy of France. This exhibition examines how Napoleon appropriated emblems of power from antiquity, especially Egypt and Rome, and linked his reign with those of the great civilizations of the past.
With a selection of about 190 objects — including furniture, silver, porcelain, bronzes, jewelry, textiles, wallpapers, metalwork, and painting — “Symbols of Power” is the first comprehensive survey of the decorative arts of the Empire style, presenting its iconography in virtually every visual medium. It features many significant works, including many extraordinary objects that have never been exhibited outside France.
Hours: 10 a.m.-4:45 p.m. Mon.-Tues., Sat.-Sun.; 10 a.m.-9:45 p.m. Wed.-Fri.
Admission: $17 adults; $15 seniors/students; $6.50 ages 7-17, free ages 6 and under
Info: (617) 267-9300, www.mfa.org
 Through March 5, 2008
Ed Rossbach Fiber Art from the Daphne Farago Collection
Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston
The MFA celebrates the recent gift of more than 40 works by Ed Rossbach. One of the pioneers in the field of American fiber arts, Mr. Rossbach created works in almost every known textile technique during his five-decade-long career. His exuberant approach to making art, free from expectations and rules, came from studying historic textile techniques while a young professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Experimenting with labor-intensive techniques such as Andean discontinuous warp weaving, Native American coiled basketry, European lace, and Indonesian ikat, Mr. Rossbach reinterpreted these methods in his own unique two-dimensional and three-dimensional works. This exhibition features about thirty-five Rossbach works from the recent gift of Daphne Farago, displayed alongside examples from the MFA's historic textile collection to illustrate the diverse sources of inspiration for his innovative fiber work.
Hours: 10 a.m.-4:45 p.m. Mon.-Tues., Sat.-Sun.; 10 a.m.-9:45 p.m. Wed.-Fri.
Admission: $17 adults; $15 seniors/students; $6.50 ages 7-17, free ages 6 and under
Info: (617) 267-9300, www.mfa.org
 Through March 23, 2008
“Walk This Way”
Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston
While shoes serve a practical function by protecting our soles from the elements and hazards underfoot, they have also become highly ornamented objects of obsession. Whatever the materials or the cost, however, shoes always reflect the time and place in which they were made and worn and the culture that produced them. "Walk This Way," unlike any footwear exhibition in the past, places shoes — from ancient Egyptian and Nubian sandals to new acquisitions representing the best in contemporary design — throughout the MFA’s galleries to illustrate their relationship to other works of art. These provocative juxtapositions provide insights into the history, ornamentation, and cultural importance of footwear. In this treasure hunt of an exhibition, visitors might find a pair of Venetian chopines next to a painting of the city by Canaletto; or a woman's shoe from the late 1790s embroidered with neoclassical scrolling grapevines exhibited with an ancient statue of the Greek god Dionysus
Hours: 10 a.m.-4:45 p.m. Mon., Tues., Sat. & Sun.; 10 a.m.-9:45 p.m. Wed.-Fri.
Admission: $17 adults; $15 seniors and student age 18-plus; free ages 17 and under
Info: (617) 267-9300, www.mfa.org
 Through March 31, 2008
Harvard Museum of Natural History
26 Oxford St., Cambridge
Come celebrate spring at “Nests & Eggs,” a new exhibition that draws on the University's extensive collections. Visitors of all ages will enjoy learning some of the myriad ways that birds nurture and protect their young. The exhibition features stunning displays of egg diversity, showcasing specimens that range in size from the basketball-sized egg of the elephant bird to tiny hummingbird eggs. Visitors can get nose-to-nose with a heath hen and her young hatchlings; and compare the familiar cup-shaped nest of a sparrow, the mud nest of a chimney swift, and the intricately woven nest of an African weaver.
Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Admission: $9 adults; $7 ages 65-plus and college students with a valid ID; $6 ages 3-18; free under 3 and Harvard ID holders and a guest
Info: (617) 495-3045, www.hmnh.harvard.edu
Through June 2008
Looking at Animals: Photographs by Henry Horenstein
Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge
The Harvard Museum of Natural History presents a new exhibition of photographs by acclaimed Boston photographer Henry Horenstein. Printed in rich sepia, Mr. Horenstein’s haunting images of creatures from land and sea invite us to look closer and examine details we might never have noticed before. Photographed in a close-up style, Mr. Horenstein’s photographs are sometimes abstract and romantic, other times intense, and always intimate and provocative. Living forms become art, while at the same time rewarding the keen observer with intriguing details that challenge the mind.
Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m., except major holidays
Admission: $9 adults; $7 students and seniors; $6 ages 3-18; under 3 free
Info: (617) 496-0049, www.hmnh.harvard.edu
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No listings for Rhode Island at this time.
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South of Boston Happenings
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Through Jan. 1
VICTORIAN CHRISTMAS AT THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Fall River Historical Society, 451 Rock St., Fall River
The Historical Society's mansion is lavishly decorated in the Victorian manner. Holiday spirit abounds from room to room, with the focal point being a magnificent 14-foot Christmas tree in the Music Room. Aglow with thousands of lights, it is a tree guaranteed to instill holiday spirit in both young and old. Traditional decorations are creatively used, working with a variety of holiday themes, to create a display unlike anything to be seen in the Fall River area. The concept of Christmas as we know it originated in Germany and was introduced to England by Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, consort of Queen Victoria. Americans, who strove to emulate the British traditions, quickly adopted the holiday and made it their own. Bavarian glassblowers created untold thousands of ornaments, many of which carry holiday lore. Replicas of many of these ornaments can be found on the Society's tree. Among the most popular are: the glass pickle, which was traditionally hidden on the tree, to be discovered on Christmas morning by the most perceptive child, who was rewarded with a special gift; "Crampus," a small devil-like figure with black horns made of coal, who followed Father Christmas rewarding naughty children with coal; and the carrot, an ornament traditionally given to new brides to bring luck in the kitchen.
Hours: 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; 1-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday
Info: (508) 679-1071, www.lizzieborden.org
Through Dec. 23
Cape Cod Enchanted Village
Cape Codder Resort & Spa, Bearse’s Way & Route 132, Hyannis
The family-friendly Cape Codder Resort & Spa once again sets the scene for holiday magic, and provides residents and guests alike the opportunity to discover the real meaning of Christmas. The resort transforms itself into the annual Cape Cod Enchanted Village,which sparkles with more than 100,000 magnificent lights, festive animation, carolers and a 16-foot “Giving Tree.” Every evening at dusk, the resorts spacious courtyard is filled with topiary animals that welcome visitors of all ages.
Info: (508) 771-3000, www.capecodderresort.org
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