The jade-green cocoon of the Monarch butterfly has gold dots on it, which is why it’s called a chrysalis, from chrysos, the Greek word for gold. The dots aren’t really gold but a combination of pigment and light reflection. Yet gold anywhere confers beauty, power, and glory. The metal has been a standard of value since, well, its discovery by humans. And King Midas aside, gold appears, like the brilliant sun, to enhance everything it touches. Gold in its myriad forms is the subject of this exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. The gilding on paintings and furniture, the karat gold of jewelry and objets, the gold lamés of fashion. While the show includes 500 works agleam, it also looks at the dark dimension of gold fever—the danger of man’s desiring. —Laura Jacobs