Sun. May 4 

When's the last time you thought: "I wonder what trade was like between Portugal and India around 1600?" Unless you work at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, your likely answer - as is mine - would be "never." Can't even remember it coming up at school. But that's the beauty of places like the Gardner. At whatever age you are, you can still expand your knowledge of what the world once was - and tap into a very very different time, just by observing and thinking. An exhibit on that trade - featuring a rare silk embroidery made in Bengal, specifically for export to Portugal - closes today, Sunday May 4.

 You can stare at this almost nine-foot high tapestry for a long time to unravel its mysteries - the interweaving of birds, animanls, humans, flowers. Also on exhibit are precious objects made of ivory, mother-of-pearl, crystal, gold and gemstones. Portuguese traders brought back all these things from India, whose Mughai emperors desired European works of art. Pedro Moura Carvalho is the curator of this exhibit, called "Luxury of Export: Artistic Exchange between India and Portugal around 1600." “Luxury for Export expands on the Gardner Museum’s interest in cross-cultural connections, and in investigating how artists drew inspiration from distant civilizations,” says Anne Hawley, Norma Jean Calderwood Director of the Museum. “It is a natural follow-up to Bellini and the East, which celebrated a Renaissance painter working in Istanbul in the 15th century, and recent contemporary programs that have dealt with the fruitful but sometimes fraught encounters between Asia and the West. This exhibition will focus new attention on the sophistication of Indian export art.” The Gardner is open 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.  Admission: $12. .

280 The Fenway, Boston 617-566-1401 www.gardnermuseum.org