Masterpieces of the Renaissance from the Louvre Museum

This exhibition, curated by a French-Japanese team, aims to explore some of the defining aspects of the rich complexity of Renaissance art that flourished in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. Through some fifty works drawn from four departments of the Louvre Museum (Paintings, Sculptures, Objets d'art and Prints and Drawings), it shows artistic production across the major European centres around four great themes: travel, whether within or beyond Europe; technical innovations and refinements such as printmaking, majolica or painted enamel; the view of Antiquity, from the copying of ancient models to their surpassing; and, finally, the flowering of portraiture in connection with a new view of the individual.

Centred on the exceptional loan of the Portrait of a Woman, wrongly known as La Belle Ferronnière by Leonardo da Vinci, Japanese visitors will be able to admire masterpieces from the Louvre's collections, such as a masterful round dish with a central boss by the enamel painter Pierre Courteys, The Three Graces by Lucas Cranach, an exceptionally penetrating portrait by the Master of the Baroncelli Portraits, and the Bust of Beatrice d'Este by Cristoforo Romano.