Masterworks

In the National Gallery of Scotland hangs an Italian painting of the 'Virgin and Child with the Infant John Baptist'. And it bears the unmistakable mark of a great artist who probably never touched it. That presiding genius was Raphael. So, how do we know it is by Romano, and not his Master? In fact it is a picture which pays homage to Raphael, while really pointing in a quite new direction.

This church is the 'Grote Kerk' - 'the great church' of the Dutch city of Haarlem, built for the most part in the 15th century. We are gazing at it through the eyes of the outstanding architectural painter of the 17th century, Pieter Janszoon Saenredam. The painting is one of the most important acquisitions made by the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, in recent years.

"In a series of unusually cold winters in Scotland during the 1780's, the Scottish lochs froze and the well-to-do of Edinburgh formed a Skating Society. To qualify for membership you had to be able to complete a circle on the ice on one skate - and that is what this reverend gentleman is doing..."

"It is a rare thing for a painting to turn up out of the blue and be hailed as a masterpiece; and it is even rarer that the man who painted it should have been only nineteen at the time. This group portrait was unknown until just a few years ago. The artist was David Wilkie - soon to become the most successful painter Scotland has ever produced...''

"William McTaggart was a Scottish painter born within earshot of the Atlantic Ocean, and he returned every summer of his life to paint it. Here in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, is what is probably his most famous picture - 'The Storm' - painted in 1890. A couple of fishing-boats are in trouble. The real theme of the painting is the storm itself..."