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 "Très riches Heures du Duc de Berry", c. 1415 / the Limburg brothers -- A deceptive idyll : February miniature from the "Très riches Heures du Duc de Berry", c. 1416 / the Limburg brothers -- An angel in the living room : the Mérode 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 Grünewald

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

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'Estrées 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.