Earth, Sea, and Sky: Nature in Western Art

The Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum raids the collection of its near-namesake, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, for this nature-themed survey of the past 4,000 years of Western art. That's a lot of scope for an exhibition featuring just 130 or so pieces, the oldest of which – an ornamental bull's head for a lyre – dates back to Mesopotamia circa 2600-2350BCE. But why quibble about curatorial over-reaching when there's so much fine art on display, including the Japan debut of Vincent Van Gogh's Cypress? Why indeed.