Bosom buddies

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 idealised breasts that are the painting’s centrepiece 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.