Visual art

FASHIONED BY SARGENT

John Singer Sargent, perhaps the most famous of Bostonian artists (or Bostonian-adjacent; Sargent lived much of his life in Europe), made his mark as a society portraitist largely of well-to-do women like Isabella Stewart Gardner, who became his close patron, confidante, and friend. Inevitably, this meant developing a formidable gift in rendering elaborate gowns and the pernicious drape and glow of an array of fine fabrics, of which Sargent became an established master. This show, closing in just a couple of weeks, celebrates that gift, however blithely; while it reaches for deeper contemplation about wealth, social position, and the relationship between the artist and the prominent person he was painting, it lands as the latest frothy bit of hagiography of a favorite son that Boston can’t bring itself to scrutinize too closely. Through Jan. 15. Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 465 Huntington Ave. 617-267-9300, www.mfa.org

BATS!

It’s always Halloween in Salem — at least to some degree — but this exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum has less to do with the flying rodents’ vampire-adjacent characteristics than their important role as indicator species of healthy ecosystems (or, recently, the opposite). The show includes real, live bats (safely behind glass), and explores the critters’ environmental, social, and cultural impacts through works by artists Resa Blatman, Michael Brolly, Nick Demakes, Juan Nicolás Elizalde, Steve Hollinger, Michael LaFosse and Richard L. Alexander, Tony Rubino, David Yann Robert, Rebecca Saylor Sack, Lino Tagliapietra, and Jeffrey Veregge.

Through July 28. Peabody Essex Museum. 161 Essex St., Salem. 978-745-9500, www.pem.org. TALES TO TELL: THE STORY OF THE PSYCHE TAPESTRIES AT THE WADSWORTH ATHENEUM

A set of five rare 17th-century tapestries from France unfurls the story of Psyche, the Greek goddess of the soul, who attained immortality from the goddess Aphrodite after completing a series of near-impossible tasks, freeing Psyche to marry her lovestruck son, Eros. Tapestries, woven on looms from painted images, are the product of rare and refined craft; they were made in only a handful of European workshops to adorn the homes of monarchs and their elite associates. A chance to see five of an almost complete narrative cycle (the series originally comprised six) is an opportunity just as rare. Through Jan. 7. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 600 Main St., Hartford. 860-278-2670, www.thewadsworth.org