Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Raphael Sanzio, Polidoro da Caravaggio and Titian Vecellio – the drawings of those great names of Italian Renaissance will soon be exhibited in China.

The exhibition titled "Italian Renaissance: a dialogue with China" opens at the M Woods Museum in Beijing on Wednesday, marking the first time the British Museum has cooperated with a private Chinese art museum.

The exhibition features the works of artists active on the Italian Peninsula from 1470 to 1580 and is divided into six themes: People, movement, light, clothing, nature and narrative. It delves into how artists from the Renaissance and China used elements such as movement, light and shadow to give life and motion to their creations.

The exhibition was co-curated by juxtaposing Renaissance works with Chinese contemporary art to explore the connection between the Western Renaissance and China across time and space.

"By juxtaposing the works of Renaissance artists with those of contemporary Chinese artists, the exhibition reexamines these historical works from a cross-cultural global perspective," said Wang Zongfu, the curator and art director of M Woods Museum, adding that it will open up a new context to explore the parallels and interconnections between these different perspectives and history.

As a response to Renaissance art, several pieces of contemporary Chinese art were created specifically for this exhibition including works by Jin Shangyi and Zeng Fanzhi.

In addition, the exhibition also presents the works of Jiang Baili, Hu Shi, Liang Sicheng, Fu Lei and other key figures in the progress of the Chinese cultural movement in the form of documentary material.

The "Italian Renaissance: a dialogue with China" will be open until February 20, 2022.