Sandro Botticelli, The Virgin Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child, c. 1485. Tempera, oil, and gold on canvas, 48 x 31 ¾ inches. Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh © Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland

El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos), An Allegory (Fábula), c. 1585–95. Oil on canvas, 26 ½ x 35 inches. Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh © Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland

Diego Velázquez, An Old Woman Cooking Eggs, 1618. Oil on canvas, 39 ½ x 47 inches. Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh © Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland

Jean-Antoine Watteau, Fêtes Vénitiennes, 1718–19. Oil on canvas, 22 x 18 inches. Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh © Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland

Thomas Gainsborough, River Landscape with a View of a Distant Village, c. 1748–50. Oil on canvas, 30 x 59 ½ inches. Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh © Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland

Allan Ramsay, Margaret Lindsay of Evelick, Mrs. Allan Ramsay, c. 1758–59. Oil on canvas 29 ¼ x 24 ¼ inches. Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh © Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland

Sir Joshua Reynolds, The Ladies Waldegrave, 1780–81. Oil on canvas, 56 ¼ x 66 ¼ inches. Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh © Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland

Sir Henry Raeburn, Colonel Alastair Ranaldson Macdonell, 15th Chief of Glengarry, 1812. Oil on canvas, 95 ¼ x 59 ½ inches. Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh © Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland

John Constable, The Vale of Dedham, 1827–28. Oil on canvas, 57 x 48 inches. Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh © Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland

John Singer Sargent, Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, 1892. Oil on canvas, 49 ½ x 39 ½ inches. Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh © Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland