May 6

 Are you, per chance, looking to walk right up to John the Baptist's head on a platter and say, "Wow"? How about leaning over the corpse of a 16th century knight and thinking, "That's pretty impressive." You can do both these things at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, as the exhibition gallery has collected some of the 16th century pieces Gardner collected around 1900 and coupled them to contemporary pieces - photographs, sculpture - by multi-media artist-in-residence Luigi Ontani. We went to the opening of  "Sculpture & Memory: Works from the Gardner and Luigi Otanti" early February and listened to some Otani and some of the Museum folks like curator Pieranna Cavalchini explain it. "He's an artist's artist," she told us, as we toured the small room holding the exhibit, "maybe not well-known to the general public." But she says it was a dream getting him to the Gardner as its artist-in-residence, and thought putting his work together with some of what Gardner collected made sense. "I love the juxtaposition of the two worlds, past and present. He's an artist who works with history. And the artist has a wicked sense of humor as did Mrs. Gardner." One of Otani's photos is of himself as Jesus Christ, holding a iconic rendition of Christ. Gardner's art works are always in the Museum - her will stipulated nothing be removed - but they've been in more obscure corners.  (St. Jerome is in the photo.) This puts them front and center and reconfigures the context. Otani spoke at the press gathering, but frankly the Italian's English isn't so good and whatever we wrote down in our notebook makes little sense now. So, we'll pluck the quote from the press handout: "There is no nostalgia in my work. I don't belive in time machines or living in the present. Mask and costume are very important to the global village." Mmmm, maybe, that does make as much sense as what we wrote down. Thoughts to ponder, certainly. At any rate, enjoy and contemplate the 10-piece exhibit in the Gothic Room, which is included in the admission fee. There are various talks with the artist throughout the exhibit. Check the Gardner website below for details.  The exhibit goes down after today, Sunday May 6. Admission: $15.

200 The Fenway, 617-566-7653 gardnermuseum.org