Reviewer: Sasha Grishin.

The summer blockbuster season has kicked off in a grand manner in Sydney with an old masters show from Scotland. It contains a rollcall of great names and works, including significant paintings by Botticelli, Titian, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Velázquez, Gauguin, Cézanne and Monet, together with an array of works on paper by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Poussin, Rembrandt, Blake and Turner.

One could call this a "bitsy show", but what absolutely superb bits. The Scottish National Gallery is in the midst of another major rebuilding campaign, so its collection of masterpieces has been put on the road to raise funds and after a very successful tour in in the US, where it was shown in slightly different configurations in a number of venues, it has come to Australia for its final outing. It is a celebration of great painting and superb draughtsmanship and it is also an exhibition where 10 different visitors will leave with 10 different favourites. It is not an exhibition which has any pretence at an internal conceptual or stylistic unity, it is simply a selection of 41 paintings and 33 works on paper and thankfully no attempt has been made to make it more extensive, it remains a very manageable exhibition that is completely devoid of padding. So often modest imported exhibitions, which contain a number of gems, are supplemented with acres of dross to build up the numbers of exhibits to impress an unsophisticated audience through sheer volume. This is a tightly selected show that respects its audience, where each work is of exceptional quality and of considerable historical significance that would justify the description of a destination piece. The result is that the viewer is not exhausted by a huge monotonous spectacle, but is rewarded with a compact show.

Diego Velázquez's bodegón, or kitchen scene, An old woman cooking eggs (1618) was painted by the master when he was still in his late teens and is simply a miracle of oil painting. From the brilliant still life in the foreground to the beautifully observed coarse peasant faces, the sparkling surfaces of glass, metal and pottery, tactile feel of the cloth and the play of light and dark areas: the whole composition is a wonderful dramatic and theatrical invention. There is some awkwardness in the articulation of the anatomy of the old woman by the young artist, but the overall impact of the painting is that of an absolute knockout. For many painters Velázquez is the supreme master of visual intelligence in paint and this early gem in an absolute treat.

In 1999 there was a real threat that Botticelli's fabled Wemyss Madonna would leave the United Kingdom for the cashed-up Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, when in a last-minute deal the £15 million ($32 million) Renaissance painting was secured for the National Galleries of Scotland. Although earlier thought to be a studio piece, once cleaned, it became firmly entrenched in Botticelli's oeuvre of the mid-1480s. Set within the "hortus conclusus", an enclosed garden which was a symbol of the Virgin's purity, the elegant and beautiful youthful women kneels to adore the sleeping Christ Child lying on the hem of her mantle. The thornless rose bush speaks of her virginity, as do many of the other symbols, colours and flowers. It is an intimate work of serene elegance with an unearthly, dream-like beauty.

The sensuousness of female flesh is celebrated in Titian's version of the Birth of Venus (Venus Anadyomene c.1520-25), Paolo Veronese's Venus, Cupid and Mars (1580s) and the breathtaking A woman in bed (1647) by Rembrandt. This is an exquisite celebration of paint made into flesh, loving psychological introspection in the case of Rembrandt and classical poise and striking beauty with Titian. The female nude is again celebrated in Gauguin's Three Tahitians (1899), albeit in a defiantly modernist manner. Also included in the show is John Singer Sargent's Lady Agnew of Lochnaw (1892), his provocative announcement of his arrival as a social portrait painter on the London art scene. Brilliant, confronting and flamboyant, the painting celebrates Sargent's ability to create a sea of sensuous white that captivates the viewer, a challenge that at the time was accepted by the young Australian artist, Hugh Ramsay, particularly in his The sisters (1904), one of the treasures of the Sydney gallery.

Old Master shows are a necessary ingredient in the mix of blockbuster exhibitions which tour Australia simply to remind us what painting and drawing can look like at its best. This selection of greats from Scotland is one of the most exquisite collections of old master paintings and drawings to seen in Australia in recent years.