We hopped on the train to Boston on a cold providence morning. We were setting out in a class and it was about 11 o’clock. Our goal was to see the Assyrian relief palettes we had been discussing in class that week. Irene Winter, a field expert was going to meet up with us, to promote discussion and a deeper understanding of the palettes themselves. All these things happened, but what eventually became the most significant lesson of the day was the nature of intention and representation, by means of display. We started looking at the palettes and discussed some very important issues such as the representation of the king as a symbol for the state, but what emerged to be the most important thing was the way that the Assyrian reliefs were arranged throughout the museum. The way the light was shown on them, the way that they were organized in the exhibition, and their proximity to each other all became a part of the narrative. When we discuss narrative, we focus on elements such as those aforementioned (chronology of events, stylistic components, the size or attention paid to specific details within the narrative itself) when describing the construction of the exhibit to lead us to historical and cultural conclusions about the people and also conclusions about the significance of the narrative. Why then?, I found myself asking, would we not take these factors into account when witnessing the exhibit. I argue that the way we saw the reliefs in the exhibit began to create a specific personal narrative that pertained entirely to our visit to the museum. I continued and began to notice peculiarities in the arrangement. For example the enormous war scene at the far side of the largest room. It was put in a place that was very well lighted, visible throughout the entire room, near a door, and had a large amount of room in front of it for people to observe it. All these things made it, in my mind, one of the most specific pieces in the exhibit. It may not have been intended in the same way in an Assyrian palace, but because of the organization of the event, I took it as such. Another thing I took away from the exhibit that may or may not have been true was the significance of lion hunting in the Assyrian culture. In thinking that the king was a representation of the state, that he was emblematic of the success of the state, Lion hunting was a particularly captivating and palpable way of describing the State as a powerful entity over its surroundings. Again, I created this image lucidly in my mind because of its specific presentation in the exhibit. The exhibit devoted an entire room to this facet of Assyrian reliefs, making it seem highly important. In conclusion, we are able to discern from cultures what they want us to see based on their means of presentation as much as the pictorial iconography, stylistic qualities and manner of juxtaposition. In this way I was able to formulate several opinions of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The lessons we take from this class are not only useful for analyzing images of the past, but all that we see. It is important to objectify even the minutest details in order to fully understand the message that is being forced upon you.