Perhaps Kate Middleton’s first year History of Art course at St Andrews, The Art of Renaissance Italy, was an incentive to befriend Prince William. His mother, as the current exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery reveals, owns an impressive collection from the period.

Queen's Gallery, Holyrood Palace

Until 26 October

Four Stars

Perhaps Kate Middleton’s first year History of Art course at St Andrews, The Art of Renaissance Italy, was an incentive to befriend Prince William. His mother, as the current exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery reveals, owns an impressive collection from the period.

Important works have been taken out of the bedrooms and drawing rooms of private residences in the Gallery’s latest effort to allow for wider access to the Royal Collection. Receiving wide critical acclaim the exhibition boasts 74 paintings and drawings from 16th century Venice, Florence and Rome. Names such as Giovanni Bellini, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Tintoretto and Titian have drawn in the public but it is works by the B list celebrities which pleasantly surprise.

It is Charles I we have to thank for getting the Royals into Renaissance painting. Rubens described him as "the greatest amateur of painting among the princes of the world", a title William sadly will not inherit after changing his degree from History of Art to Geography (possibly to get away from Kate).

In another Royal romance, Charles I, when Prince of Wales, embarked for Spain to woo Philip IV’s sister, the Infanta Maria. He came back without a bride or an alliance but had seen one of the finest collections of Italian paintings in Europe.

Resolving to create his own collection, Britain’s first art dealers – mostly advisers and ambassadors to the King – were sent out across Europe. The most substantial acquisition came when he purchased seventy paintings from the Dukes of Mantua collection for £30,000. Unfortunately for the dealer in question the paintings were sent back to Britain and the King did not pay up, leaving the former to the mercy of the Mantuan bailiffs.

Most grievously in 1649 much of the collection was sold. However, with the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 Charles II bought back a significant number. Among those recovered was the face of the current exhibition the Portrait of a Lady in Green by Bronzino. Her direct and becoming asymmetrical gaze, heritage perhaps of her merchant background, sums up the idiosyncrasy of the range of paintings on exhibit.

Complimenting the paintings is a fantastic array of high quality drawings: compositional sketches, life studies, portraits and designs normally kept in boxes in Windsor Castle. Executed in natural red and black chalks using coloured grounds, pen and ink, white heightening and washes of dilute ink the drawings give a real impression of the period’s keen experimentation in draughtsmanship.

Michaelangelo’s presentation drawing The Fall of Phaeton is exquisite in its attention to detail. The drawing, with its disturbing images of wild infants, depicts the neo-platonic idea of the carnal nature of childhood. Martin Clayton, Exhibition Co-Curator, described the drawing as being amongst the finest in Western art: "It is Micahelangelo at the absolute height of his power. He was one of the greatest draughtsman and sheets such as these are amongst the finest of his work."

Although some paintings are of questionable quality they have all been beautifully cleaned and some have been painstakingly restored. X-ray and infra-red analysis has opened up academic debate and led to new and controversial attributions.

The Queen’s Gallery has once again succeeded in creating wider access to the Royal Collections. Free audio-guides and a comprehensive e-gallery add to the visitor experience. Catch this in its final month.