Master strokes

Last August, when devastating floods swept through central Europe, Dresden's State Art Collections became the subject of a huge rescue operation. From deep within the bowels of the Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister, which houses the city's vast collection of Old Master paintings, some 4,000 artworks were carried to safety.

This exhibition of 50 paintings from the Dresden collection, which features Italian, Northern European and French works spanning more than two-and-a-half centuries, marks the reopening of the Gemldegalerie.

Mantegna's The Holy Family is certainly one of the most impressive paintings here - so sculpturally modelled that it manages to resemble more of a wood relief than a painting.

Stunning, too, are Canaletto's panoramic views of Venice, while, outnumbering these, topographical views of the Florence Of Elbe, as Dresden was known, are provided by Bernardo Bellotto, a nephew and pupil of Canaletto's, who, perhaps to deliberately confuse, also signed himself with his more famous uncle's name.

Rubens's large, sensual and fluid Diana Returning From The Hunt, in which the statuesque goddess and her three nubile assistants are leered at by satyrs suggestively offering baskets of ripe fruit, heads the Flemish selection, while paintings by Velazquez, Claude, Poussin and Durer offer fine examples from the Spanish, French and German schools. Dominating the last room are two bold panels of Adam and Eve by Cranach the Younger.

While not all the works can be described as 'masterpieces', you'll certainly find some rich pickings among the 50.
Until June 8, Royal Academy, Piccadilly W1, daily 10am to 6pm (Fri to 10pm), £7.50, £6.50 concs. Tel: 020 7300 8000. Tube: Green Park/Piccadilly Circus