Peter Howson is no shrinking violet. His paintings are big, powerful and uncompromising. Whether that qualifies him to claim the role of a latter-day Michelangelo is another matter.

But if his ambitions are grandiose, what can one say about the Roman Catholic Church which states that this commission is the largest it has made in Scotland since the Reformation?

That suggests that the Church, and its representative on earth, Archbishop Mario Conti, are auditioning as the Scottish equivalent of the Medicis - the great art patrons of the 15th and 16th centuries, who went on to become Popes, and who commissioned Michelangelo to execute some of his greatest works.

Probably the nearest equivalent to the Howson work was the basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence, which sounds rather similar in concept. Giovanni di Medici, who became Pope Leo X, wanted a vast work with hundreds of figures in it, and Michelangelo spent three years working it up.

Things did not go well, however. After preparing a series of drawings and models, Michelangelo was abruptly informed that the money had run out and the project would have to be cancelled. One trusts that the Church and its backers have rather deeper pockets.

That apart, the Church is surely to be congratulated for continuing a tradition of patronage which goes back to the Renaissance, and resulted in some of the greaest works of art ever produced.

For those who question whether Howson, with his neo-brutalist tendencies, his naked Madonna (no, the other one) and his experiences of alcoholism and drugs, is the right person to be executing a great religious work of art, then Michelangelo, with his bouts of melancholy, feelings of inadequacy, his professional jealousy and his passion for art, may in the end be quite a suitable role model.

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