Met bets

Like the fashion world, The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds semiannual press events to showcase the upcoming season. The most recent luncheon — held a few days before Thanksgiving — didn't feature turkey but chicken, salad, wine, coffee and petite cookies. The upcoming offerings discussed by new Met director (and Ossining resident Thomas Campbell) promised even richer fare.

"There's a plethora of exhibitions," Campbell said, reasserting the museum's commitment to programming.

Visitors have responded in kind.

"Our public is stronger than ever before," he added, noting that The Met benefits from a deep local as well as international audience.

As with a banquet, it's difficult to decide which exhibits to highlight here, let alone see. I myself can't wait for "The Lod Mosaic" (spring) featuring a third-century mosaic recently discovered in Israel, and "The Art of Illumination" (opening March 2), which features the unbounded "Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry" in all of the book's gold, periwinkle, filigree glory.

There are also a number of potentially ravishing drawing shows, including "The Drawings of Bronzino" (opening Jan. 20), the first ever exhibit devoted to the Mannerist master. But I'm just as intrigued by a theme show like "The Birthday in Chinese Art" (opening Feb. 27).

There are two exhibits sure to be hits with the public. "Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art" (opening April 27) surveys the titan in 34 paintings, 58 drawings, 50 prints and 12 ceramics and sculptures. "American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity" (opening May 5) features gowns and images to die for, from 1870 to 1940.

This being a holiday week, Campbell issued a last call for a couple of Met exhibits, including "Vermeer's Masterpiece: The Milkmaid" (closing Sunday) and "Art of the Samurai." That won't be closing until Jan. 10 but The Met will soon be swapping out one-third of its fragile objects. So best to see it now.

A word about Campbell as new master of ceremonies for these press lunches/ Power Point presentations. While he lacks the Gallic insouciance of his predecessor, Philippe de Montebello, he makes up for it with a British wit as dry as the white wine The Met serves.

Standing before an image of Velázquez's "Surrender of Breda" — on loan from the Prado for the current "Velázquez Rediscovered" show — Campbell noted that at the press conference in Madrid, a photographer posed him near the part of the painting that focuses on a horse's behind.

Campbell can afford to poke fun at himself. Everyone knows that "Tapestry Tom" — so-called for his brilliant tapestry scholarship and exhibitions as well as his low-key charm — is no horse's patootie.

For more, log on to www.metmuseum.org. Images courtesy of The Met.