The First Hit On In History With A Nude Selfie

OF THE 2m objects in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, one of the most startling is the painting with accession number 2006.235.74. Summoned from the stacks where it lives most of the time, the tiny picture sits on a block of comforting polystyrene, a blue surgical glove on either side acting as a guard of honour. The idealized breasts that are the painting’s centerpiece are even more luminous in the original than in reproductions. Swathed in a furry gauze, they present themselves like a jewel in a box or a bonbon, something secret and sweet, both a revelation and a challenge.