Dressed to Kill tour of the Metropolitan Museum

What is the biggest theme in art, over all? Can one answer a question like that? Well, actually, one can: the biggest theme is human beauty. And what does human beauty consist of, in art? There's an answer to that too. It's not one unchanging definition of perfect facial features or bodies. Instead, it's a constantly changing thing, consisting largely of the ways people decorate themselves, with clothing, hairstyles, jewelry, make-up, shoes, hats, and so on. And where is the best place to study this ever-changing obsession? A great art museum, where you can see the ways artists have collaborated with sitters to recreate the standards of beauty of their cultures. And perhaps above all other museums, the ultimate encyclopedic museum, New York's Metropolitan. So come on this hour-long virtual tour, and let Professor Andrew Lear show you some of the great examples of fashion history in the museum's fabulous collections.

Andrew Lear is a renowned expert on gender and sexuality in Greek and Roman antiquity. During his academic career, he taught at Harvard, Pomona College, and NYU. In recent years, he has founded Oscar Wilde Tours, the LGBTQ history and culture tour company and Shady Ladies Tours, a women's history and culture tour company. He is also working with actor/author Stephen Fry on a podcast about the "Scandals and Secrets of London's National Portrait Gallery."

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