Unlike the exhibition at the Tsinghua University Art Museum five years ago, which gave a general review of Western art, works shown this time are arranged progressively, showing the changing roles of figure painting in history and various ways to present portrait figures, says Zhang Huiwen, a curator at Art Exhibitions China, the institution that has organized the tour of Tokyo Fuji Art Museum's collection.

"One sees in these works changes in the central figures in Western painting: first gods, then royalty, elites and finally, ordinary people," she says, adding that the exhibition gathers together motifs depicted in different social backgrounds and under the brushes of different artists, by which the audience is introduced to a diverse history of images.

Zhang says that with a global vision, Tokyo Fuji Art Museum has added to its collection the works of signature artists in Western art history throughout the centuries, covering styles as diverse as renaissance, baroque, rococo, neoclassicism, romanticism, impressionism and modernism.

She says that through gazing at these works, people will find their own answers about history and beauty. "Facing a piece of art, people may see in it themselves, or others; they may find something familiar, or totally strange. Most of the time, they will feel that art is thought-provoking and challenges their fixed values."