Chinese collector decodes the Renaissance with new book

More Chinese now travel around Europe and see Renaissance masterpieces. Yet, they do not necessarily understand them - composition, colors, light and shadow, strokes - indeed, why they stand out.

For most Chinese, school education gave them a limited knowledge about fine arts. "It's a pity that we lack an art education to understand aesthetics better," says Yang Hao, a collector of old masters and an art history lecturer at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

Based on her lecture notes for the Renaissance art history classes for CAFA freshmen's visual foundation course, her new book Annabel's Short Renaissance Art History is a practical guide to the art world.