Floral-themed artifacts displayed at the Palace Museum in Beijing－a Song Dynasty (960-1279) painting on loquats and a bird.[Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily]

"On the other hand, among the literati, an elegant touch was favored. This situation thus created a plethora of works which entirely used black ink with different levels of darkness," the researcher explains.

Ancient Chinese paintings are often said to lack the capacity to display reality usually portrayed in Western art of the same time. But this display shows how realistic Chinese art actually was.

Sometimes, even the smallest detail, like an ant crawling on a piece of fruit, is highlighted.

"The colors in these paintings are usually very bright to show the emperors' tastes, which are often connected with power and wealth," Wang Zhongxu says.

In Baihua Tu (One hundred flowers), more than 60 kinds of flowers, including plum blossom, camellia and peony, are shown on a 16-meter-long scroll to portray scenes from the four seasons. And in Jiadie Tu (Butterflies), probably one of the best-known exhibits on display, a quick glance of the work seems insufficient to tell whether the creatures are real or not.

A long list of iconic names in Chinese fine art history-Ma Yuan, Ma Lin, Zhu Shaozong and more-have works shown in this exhibition.