Image: Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo
The book offers an accessible introduction to Western painting, explaining basic knowledge in a question-and-answer format for beginners.
Its seven themes cover goddesses and cupids, people depicted by painters, scenes of daily life, beautiful flowers and fruit, beautiful clothing, narrative paintings, and paintings with light.
Focusing mainly on works from the Renaissance to the period before Impressionism, it explains the visual details, artists’ intentions and historical backgrounds of the paintings.
Chardin and Beardsley, both artists whose exhibitions were held at the museum, also appear in the book.
