From Altdorfer to Rubens: How paintings tell stories

About the Exhibition

Themed 'How Painting Tells a Story,' this exhibition explores how paintings conveyed narrative content in European art from the 16th through 17th centuries. It sheds light on the development of visual narrative through the work of major artists such as Albrecht Altdorfer and Peter Paul Rubens. Centered on Renaissance and Baroque painting, the exhibition shows how paintings gave visual form to literary, religious, and historical stories. It presents 40 works in total, organized into three sections — 'The Structure of Story,' 'The Expression of Figures,' and 'Scene Composition.' Altdorfer's The Castle of Babylon and Rubens's Aphrodite and Artemis in particular stand as the exhibition's key works, showing the pinnacle of visual narrative.