Anyone whose appetite for painting has gone cold will find it inflamed again by “Botticelli to Braque: Masterpieces From the National Galleries of Scotland,” a spectacular exhibition that opened at the de Young Museum on Saturday, March 7.

Decades ago, I began to notice how often in museum retrospectives and anthology shows the lender of particularly impressive works proved to be the Scottish National Art Collection, shorthand for the three linked Edinburgh institutions contributing to the current show: the Scottish National Gallery, Scottish National Portrait Gallery and Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.