It is becoming increasingly common for Japanese art museums to host exhibitions bearing the names of famous overseas art venues. If the source institution is famous enough, this will give a show of otherwise disparate works of art instant glamour and an identity.
The National Art Center, Tokyo currently has an exhibition of art from St. Petersburg's Hermitage Museum, while the first exhibition at the recently reopened Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art flies the flag of the Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery in the Netherlands. In a similar vein, Tokyo's National Museum of Western Art (NMWA) is now holding an exhibition of art on loan from the Berlin National Museums. But rather than one distinct and well-known museum, these are a cluster of institutions in the German capital, something that slightly dilutes the foreign venue brand name effect.
A similar problem exists with the show's contents. Titled "From Renaissance to Rococo," it spans several centuries and artistic movements, as well as a variety of media. In addition to paintings there are plenty of sculptures and drawings. In other words, the show seems to be trying to tick rather too many boxes.