Someone who works in television documentaries said to me the other day that he thought now was a good time to be a woman historian because producers, in their desperation to make history programmes stand out, are insisting on young, attractive women presenting them rather than middle-aged men.

The man who made the remark was clearly suggesting choosing a presenter in this way is discriminatory but, on the other hand, history documentaries have been dominated for a long time by a particular type of man: privileged, rakish, mannered, superior; men with wafty hair and high opinions, such as Niall Ferguson and David Starkey, who behave a little like the be-ruffed monarchs and men of influence they make programmes about.

Andrew Graham-Dixon, who has been presenting programmes on the history of art, including The Art Of China (BBC Four, Wednesday, 9pm), is not nearly as bad as all that, although he does have the swagger of a man who is sure of his opinions.

In the first programme, he gave us his views on the art of ancient China and, in particular, thousands of masks found in pits in the south-western city of Guanghan.

The masks were strange, disturbing objects but Graham-Dixon was immediately interesting on the significance of their staring eyes.

"Eyes have always been a source of power in images," he said.

"When the prophet Muhammad wanted to destroy images, he ordered those doing the destroying to attack the eyes first.

The same was true in England during the Protestant Reformation - they scratched the eyes out."

As Graham-Dixon told us all this, he leaned in closer to some of the masks and their dark, distorted faces felt like a convincing demonstration of the power of art to do evil as well as good.

No one really knows for sure, but the masks may have been used in religious ceremonies to intimidate and impress ordinary people, which is not an unusual way for art to be used.

Totalitarian or unscrupulous regimes - and regimes that are apparently more benign - have always used art to persuade, terrify, dominate, manipulate, frighten and control.

It is art as a force for bad, however beautiful it may be.

Graham-Dixon also explored art as an expression of ego (usually male) and there is no better example than China's terracotta warriors.

The soldiers are beautiful objects, and each of them is an individual, but they were created by the First Emperor and then buried with him in his tomb so he could violently dominate the heavenly plane as he had the earthly one; they were created because of the stunning arrogance of a powerful man.

In the end, though, it was an ordinary man who proved more interesting - an ordinary man whose name we will never know.

Graham-Dixon came across him by accident when he was taking a close look at one of the warriors.

They are hollow inside and on one of the legs you could still see the marks where the sculptor dragged his fingers as he shaped the clay.

It was an extraordinary little leftover from 2000 years ago; just a tiny mark left by an ordinary man.

But it was quite the most beautiful piece of art in the programme.