Exhibits

Fogg Art Museum. Through April 2. "Chasing Shadows: Photographs from the Collection." The concept for the show is embedded in its title: It speaks to the unique qualities of photographic processes, to the history of the medium and to the history of the collection under the steward-ship of the late Davis Pratt.

Through July 1995. "Shades of Significance: Tonal Values in Abstract Art." From its perceived origins in Cubism, through its dominance of the post-war American art scene, to its current coexistence with other approaches to imagemaking.

Through summer 1995. "Selections from the Joseph H. Hazen Collection." This exhibition offers viewers a rare opportunity to view privately owned works by some of the great masters of the late 19th and early 29th centuries. Included are works by Braque, van Gogh, Kandinksky, Modigliani, Leger, Picasso and Toulouse-Lautrec.

"France and the Portrait, 1799-1870." This installation of works from the permanent collections explores the changing conventions and practice of portraiture in France between the rise to power of Napoleon Bonaparte and the fall of the Second Empire.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. 280 The Fenway, Boston. 566-1401. Through June 4. "Dennis Miller Bunker and His Circle" features more than 30 works of Bunker and some of the most celebrated names in American painting in the late 19th century.

Museums of Cultural and Natural History. Ongoing. "Birthstones" Explores the cultural and natural history of birthstones, and how perceptions of these precious and semiprecious gems have been influenced by mythology and astronomy.

Peabody Museum. Ongoing. "Encounters with the Americas."

Ongoing. "Ju/wasi: Bushmen of the Kalahari."

Ongoing. "Worlds in Miniature, Worlds Apart: Dioramas, Models and Mannequins in the Peabody Museum."

Ongoing. "The Hall of the Northern American Indian."

Ongoing. "Ware Collection of Glass Flowers."

Sackler Museum. Through May 21, 1995. "Impressions of Mesopotamia: Seals from the Ancient Near East." This display of ancient Near Eastern seals charts their development over 3,000 years of Mesopotamian history.

Through May 21, 1995. "Introduction to Byzantine Coinage." Showcases the Whittemore collection of Byzantine coins, including over 3,000 gold, silver and bronze coins that cover the range of Byzantine numismatics from A.D. 491 to 1453.

Through March 5. "Linear Graces...(and Disgraces): Drawings from the Courts of Persia, Turkey, and India." The second half of a two-part exhibition, is drawn from the Museum's holdings and from private collections of drawings by master artists of Iran, Turkey and India.