The National Gallery of Scotland is now linked with the Royal Scottish Academy building. You can enter by the restaurant which lies between the two buildings at a lower level, or through the portico of either neoclassical structure. The RSA provides a large space for major loan exhibitions, and since these have surpassed in appeal the quieter pleasures provided by the permanent collections, it is appropriate that its rather gross architecture stands in front of the more reticent and elegant home of the parent institution. But The Age of Titian, an exhibition devoted to Venetian Renaissance art mainly from Scottish collections, is so well conceived and displayed that it disarms those of us who trembled at the prospect of change to the arrangements here. There are paintings transported from obscurity, rescued from store or transformed by cleaning; but, best of all, familiar masterpieces appear in a new light.

LRB 21 October 2004 | PDF Download