Spotlight Tour: Model as Muse, with Giselle Acosta ’27

On this tour, Giselle Acosta ’27 will explore the lens through which artists depict their models, specifically the ones they elevate to the venerable rank of muse. The works on the tour will be Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s A Sea-Spell(1875–77), Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s Self-Portrait with Cat (1920), and a 13-century Persian plaque.

Spotlight Tours are designed and led by Harvard undergraduates from a range of academic disciplines. Each tour is focused on objects chosen by the student and provides visitors a unique, thematic view into the collections. Tours typically feature three works of art, embrace a conversational format, and last about 45 minutes. Open to the public, these tours start outside the museum shop on Saturdays and Sundays at 11am and 2pm.