Museum of Fine Arts Boston

The False Mirror

 by Axel Fay

  

          This sneaky piece in the American Wing of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, gives a mirror image of the gallery where you stand, but a mirror that instead shows the intensity of other people staring at the sculptures standing tall in the room. The piece Museum Epiphany III by Warren Prosperi, an oil on canvas painting, snuck its way into a room with 19^th century work, even though it was made in 2012. The painting was positioned so well as to seem like an actual mirror image of the room. The detail also goes all the way to the back of the room, by painting the other portraits and paintings in the room to the last detail.

            There is a collection of moving characters in the painting. In the back can be seen the elderly woman with her nurse both appreciating the higher up pieces of art that hang on the wall, as they are facing upwards, in appreciation with their slight grins and gentle eyes, of the work that hangs above them. Farther back yet, there is the man, staring intensely, at a portrait of a boy in black. He hunches over, hands behind his back, clad in a wrinkled white shirt and black pants, with a shine on the top of his head from a lack of hair, all of which contrasts the boy sitting straight, with hair long enough to touch his nose, and clothed in black, with a background of black. While the boy remains motionless in a painting, the painted man, hunches over for a moment, and then stands tall and walks away, to the next gallery. In the front, there are three parties. To the utmost left is the avid admirer of art. She stands tall, hands in her hips, wearing colors that fit the room, with her red turtleneck sweater matching the raspberry wallpaper. She stares critically through her glasses at a high-hung painting, and ready write down her thoughts with pencil in hand. To the utmost right, is the solitary rugged man, who, with shirt untucked, and scruffy morning beard, faces away from everyone, arms crossed, almost in self-reflection rather than intake of the painting in front of him, and not of the most intriguing personality. All the characters have their own solitary existence in the painting, each of which with entirely separate and distinct personalities, which can be inferred from how each individual was painted, but most noticeable of all, is the last party, the centerpiece, of the daughter and mother. Both draped in white, but so different in actions. The child stares with realization, deep in thought, at the statue that stands tall in front of her, she stands, although with movement in hands, as she passes her fingers through her hair, petrified. It is unclear what she sees, for the statue faces away from the mirror, and her expression is almost blank, but her mind is at work interpreting what she sees in front of her. Her mother, faceless, stares at her child, and holds her child by the shoulder, as if ready to leave, as if her child was doing wrong in staring too long. The movement of everyone is clear, even though they are standing still, admiring art, you can see where they are going and what they will do next, the mother urging her child to go, the solitary man looking around for prey, the deep admirer, and critique of art, taking up arms with her paper and pencil, and at the same time, with creaking wooden planks as they walk, and the echo of soft conversation, barely noticeable to the ear.

This piece, although not a perfect reflection of the room, seeing as the statue is in a different position, and minor details are different from the rooms current positioning, its effectiveness really increases when it hangs in that room. It’s movement, and mood is very appropriate; it portrays perfectly the slow movement of every character, and their individual admiration for art. The painting has every right to be called Museum Epiphany, no better name could have been chosen.