v. 1. Counsel for the afterlife : from the Papyrus of Ani, c. 1300 BC / Anonymous -- Group portrait with empress : the Empress Theodora with her Retinue, c. 547 / Anonymous -- Propaganda on cloth : the Bayeux Tapestry, after 1066 / artist unknown -- "A garden inclosed in my spouse" : the little garden of paradise, c 14.10 / Upper Rhenish Master -- Palaces crumble but books remain : miniature for the month of January from the "Tráes riches Heures du Duc de Berry", c. 1415 / the Limburg brothers -- A deceptive idyll : February miniature from the "Tráes riches Heures du Duc de Berry", c. 1416 / the Limburg brothers -- An angel in the living room : the Mâerode Triptych, c. 1422/1430 / Robert Campin -- An Italian in Bruges : the Arnolfini marriage, 1434 / Jan van Eyck -- Monument to a military leader : the battle of San Romano, c. 1435 / Paolo Uccello -- A saint with a practical turn of mind : St Nicholas of Bari, 1437 / Fra Angelico -- May God help the chancellor : the virgin of Chancellor Nicolas Rolin, c. 1437 / Jan van Eyck -- A Christian artisan advertises his craft : St. Eligius, 1449 / Petrus Christus -- The king's mistress posing as the virgin : the Melun Diptych, c. 1456 / Jean Fouquet -- A family sings its own praises : procession of the Magi, 1459 / Benozzo Gozzoli -- A small saint in a vasty building : St. Jerome, 1460/1475 / Antonello da Messina -- The splendours of a small dynasty : Ludovico Gonzaga and his family, c. 1470 / Andrea Mantegna -- An empire collapses, the painter retreats : the Portinari altar, c. 1475 / Hugo van der Goes -- A grim male ballet : the martyrdom of St Sebastian, 1475 / Antonio and Piero del Pollaiolo -- A magnificent picture for a dubious moneychanger : the adoration of the Magi, c. 1475 / Sandro Botticelli -- Hocus-pocus, inquisition and demons : the conjuror, after 1475 / Hieronymus Bosch -- Jason sails for the unknown shores : the ship of the Argonauts, c. 1480/1490 / Ercole de' Roberti/Lorenzo Costa -- The sinner and the eccentric : the ship of fools, 1480/1516 / Hieronymus Bosch -- A cart trundles towards damnation : the Haywain, between 1485 and 1490 / Hieronymus Bosch -- Fairest daughter of heaven and waves : the birth of Venus, c. 1486 / Sandro Botticelli -- A message from the world of alchemy : the death of Procris, c. 1500 / Piero di Cosimo -- How Bellini imagined a city : St Mark preaching at Alexandria, 1504-1507 / Gentile Bellini -- The man, the naked and the bolt of lightning : the tempest, c. 1507 / Giorgione -- Heaven's gates are already opened to receive the bride : the martyrdom of St Catherine, c. 1508 / Lucas Cranach the Elder -- In praise of lies and deceit : Penelope and the suitors, 1509 / Pinturicchio --

(v. 1. cont.) Strange quartet : the three stages of life, with death, c. 1510 / Hans Baldung Grien

The music of the spheres on earthly instruments : the nativity panels from the Isenheim Altar, 1512/1516 / Matthias Grèunewald

When wings no longer soar : Melencholia I, 1514 / Albrecht Dèurer

Composure in the face of misfortune : the fire in the Borgo, 1514-1517 / Raphael

The goddess with the mercenary's hat : the judgement [sic] of Paris, 1516/1528 / Niklaus Manuel Deutsch

The femme fatale charms the devout viewer : the execution of John the Baptist, c. 1517 / Niklaus Manuel Deutsch

The battle to end all battles : the battle of Issus, 1529 / Albrecht Altdorfer

Sodom burns, while those who have escaped celebrate : Lot and his daughters, c. 1530 / Netherlandish Master

A foreign merchant in his office : portrait of the merchant Georg Gisze, 1532 / Hans Holbein the Younger

Careers in the kings' service : the ambassadors, 1533 / Hans Holbein the Younger

From the canopy of heaven to a four-poster bed : Venus of Urbino, c. 1538 / Titian

In the end the artist, too, was cheated : Pope Paul III and his grandsons, 1545 / Titian

The miracle in the water : the fountain of youth, 1546 / Lucas Cranach the Elder

A hero takes a dip : Icarus, 1558 / Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The Lord sits at the table of lords : the marriage at Cana, 1562/63 / Paolo Caliari (Veronese)

A village in winter : the census at Bethlehem, 1566 / Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The bar is full, time for a wedding! : peasant wedding feast, c. 1567 / Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Aspirations to immortality : the origin of the Milky Way, c. 1580 / Jacopo Tintoretto

A painter discovers life in the raw : the butcher's shop, c. 1583 / Annibale Carracci

A woman thwarts Spain's pride : Armada portrait of Elizabeth I, c. 1590 / George Gower

Tyrannicide by tender hand : Judith and Holofernes, c, 1599 / Caravaggio

Two cool beauties in the tub : Gabrielle d'Estrâees and one of her sisters, 1600 / School of Fontainebleau

A hero dies upright : the dying Seneca, 1611/1615 / Peter Paul Rubens

Courtly delight in the vagrant life : the musicians' quarrel, 1620/1630 / Georges de La Tour

Not the prodigal son : Jovial company, 1622 / Gerard van Honthorst

A royal match : Henri IV receives the portrait of Maria de' Medici, 1622/1625 / Peter Paul Rubens

Bad company : the sharper, c. 1630 / Georges de La Tour

Double-dealing hands and eyes : the fortune teller, after 1630 / Georges de La Tour

Surgeons lay the human being bare : the anatomy lesson of Dr. Tulp, 1632 / Rembrandt

Appendix.

v. 2. Grateful for the gift of sensuous pleasure : the love garden, c. 1632-1634 / Peter Paul Rubens -- The victor honours a defeated enemy : the surrender of Breda, 1635 / Diego Velâazquez -- The writing on the wall : Belshazzar's feast, c. 1635 / Rembrandt -- A Frenchman in Rome : the rape of the Sabine women, 1637/1639 / Nicolas Poussin -- Tho' our wealthy days be done, here's to a life of luxury : the king drinks, 1640-1645 / Jacob Jordaens -- Parading for Amsterdam : the night watch, 1642 / Rembrandt -- A nude for the king : Venus at her mirror, c. 1646 / Diego Velâazquez -- A rich man sitting in the street : the Burgher of Delft and his daughter, 1655 / Jan Steen -- The end of the Habsburgs in Madrid : las Meninas, 1656 / Diego Velâazquez -- A careerist bathes in the sun king's radiance : the chancellor Sâeguier, after 1660 / Charles Le Braun -- Cultivated leisure, music and champagne : the music-party, c. 1718 / Antonie Watteau -- A morning at the art dealer's : shop-sign for the art dealer Gersaint, 1720 / Antoine Watteau -- In praise of the freshly laundered shirt : the laundress, 1733 / Jean Simâeon Chardin -- The birth of the nuclear family : the breakfast, 1739 / Franðcois Boucher -- The stage is clear for the countess and her lover : marriage a-la-mode : 4. The toilette, c. 1743 / William Hogarth -- The fire art of extravagance : the banquet of Cleopatra, 1746-1750 / Giambattista Tiepolo -- A lecherous bull as sweet seducer : the rape of Europa, 1747 / Franðcois Boucher -- The proper combination of activity and leisure : Mr and Mrs Andrews, 1749 / Thomas Gainsborough -- Every convent has its salon : the parlour of San Zaccaria, 1750 / Francesco Guardi -- Tennis with Apollo : the death of Hyacinthus, 1752/53 / Giambattista Tiepolo -- Carnival in Venice : the minuet, c. 1754 / Giadomenico -- What's in a square : the Freyung, Vienna, from the southeast, 1759/60 / Bernardo Bellotto, called Canaletto -- A star-machine explains the universe : a philosopher giving a lecture on the Orrery, 1764-1766 / Joseph Wright of Derby -- The jewel in Saxony's crown : Dresden old town seen from the end of the new town bridge, 1765 / Bernardo Bellotto, called Canaletto -- Those with no prospects in England go to India : George Clive with his family and an Indian maidservant, c. 1765 / Joshua Reynolds -- A German icon : Goethe in the Roman campagna, 1786/87 / Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein -- The holy revolution : the death of Marat, 1793 / Jacques-Louis David -- The black widow, beautiful and deadly : The Duchess of Alba, 1797 / Francisco de Goya -- Yesterday's people : the family of Charles IV, 1800 / Francisco de Goya -- Fantasy of an unemployed architect : cathedral overlooking a city, 1813 / Karl Friedrich Schinkel --

(v. 2. cont.) A view to infinity : Chalk Cliffs on Rèugen, c. 1818 / Caspar David Friedrich

Dramatic struggle for survival : the raft of the Medusa, 1819 / Thâeodore Gâericault

A romantic's Asiatic tour de force : the death of Sardanapalus, c. 1827 / Eugáene Delacroix

A painter on the barricades : Liberty leading the people, 1830 / Eugáene Delacroix

Japanese on their travels : morning mist by Mishima, c. 1833 / Ando Hiroshige

Journey to a realm of light and colour : women of Algiers in their apartments, 1834 / Eugáene Delacroix

Across the river and into the past : the Schreckenstein crossing, 1837 / Ludwig Richter

The German painting best-loved by Germans : the poor poet, 1839 / Carl Spitzweg

The greatest amateur musician of the nation : the flute concert of Frederick the Great at Sanssouci, 1850-1852 / Adolph Menzel

A studio opens its doors to the world : the studio, 1855 / Gustave Courbet

The programme of modernism : music in the Tuileries gardens, 1862 / Edouard Manet

A fragrance of women and the Orient : the Turkish bath, 1863 / Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingress

The wrong uniform exposes the true culprit : the execution of Maximilian, 1868 / Edouard Manet

The queen murders her children : Medea, 1870 / Anselm Feuerbach

Royalty under the lime trees : the departure of King Wilhelm I for the army on 31 July 1870, 1871 / Adolph Menzel

Unease in the shade of the trees : Camille Monet on a garden bench (The bench), 1873 / Claude Monet

A look behind the scenes : the rehearsal on the stage, 1873 / Edgar Degas

Dancing on a Sunday on Montmartre : Au Moulin de la Galette, 1876 / Auguste Renoir

Under the umbrella, loneliness : Paris street, rainy day, 1877 / Gustave Caillebotte

A dream of the south and of death : The Isle of the dead, 1880 / Arnold Bèocklin

Venue for gentry, bourgeoisie and boheme : the luncheon of the boating party, 1881 / Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Declaration of love for the capital of the world : a bar at the Folies Bergáere, 1881 / Edouard Manet

In the paradise of the petite bourgeoisie, all are strangers : Sunday afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte, 1884/1886 / Georges Seurat

Jesus Christ, the lonely contemporary : Christ's entry into Brussels, 1888 / James Ensor

The world is out of joint : Potsdamer Platz, 1914 / Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Not long until it bursts apart : Metropolis (Triptych), 1928 / Otto Dix

The Vitebsk man of sorrows : white crucifixion, 1938 / Marc Chagall

400 years at a glance : dream of a Sunday afternoon in Alameda Park, 1948 / Diego Rivera

Appendix.