Baroque art breezes into Beijing Summer

An exhibition on the Golden Age of Neapolitano Art has landed in Beijing with 40 masterpieces of classic oil painting. The collection showcases Baroque art in Naples Italy from the 17th through the 18th centuries, bringing a fresh Baroque breeze into the hot Beijing summer.

40 works come from the National Museum of Capodimonte Italy, representing the glorious art history of Italy some 300 years ago. This is the first time for any of the works to be displayed in China. The exhibition consists of paintings on mythology, religion, and history, with genres including portraits, rituals, and objects.

Wang Limei, director of Beijing World Art Museum said, "All the pieces we selected are representations of a whole era, combining realistic, classic, Baroque and Rococo genres."

Capodimonte Museum may not be very familiar to Chinese people, but its vast collection can be traced from the 13th Century all the way through to the 20th Century. Its collection includes some paintings from world-class artists in western art history, such as Titian and Caravaggio.

Ding Ning, associate professor of Peking University said, "Naples was an interesting place during the Baroque period, where many artists and intellectuals gathered. Through the paintings, our memory is able to flash back to that golden age, breathing the artistic air."

The Baroque art exhibition will last until September 15th in Beijing, and then land in Wuhan and Guangzhou for the rest of its China tour.