Exhibition alert: Oh, what an idea! A small portrait is hidden behind another as part of a diptych that closes. Or it slides from a behind a panel with a different picture. Or a jeweled pendant twirls to reveal a portrait on the reverse. Hidden Faces: Covered Portraits of the Renaissance will be up at the MetMuseum through July 7, 2024. I can't get down to New York to see it, but a selection of objects from the show appears on the website, enough to set off the imagination. And catalogue, of course, provides more.
Lockets are common keepsakes; but think of the possibilities if you invent more a elaborate object—for transmitting spies' reports or working magic or concealing the true identity of someone except to the person who knows the secret of opening the device. What if it falls into the wrong hands? Plot points or red herrings! Something lost, something found! In a way, it's an idea hiding in plain sight.
I have requested the exhibition catalogue through my state's interlibrary loan system. As an author, I urge people to buy books. As a local library trustee, let me also remind you that every book you borrow boosts your public library's circulation figures—and in these days, more than ever, we need robust public libraries!