Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen provide answers to these and other questions about world-famous works of art. Guiding our eye to revealing details, they also shed fascinating light on fishions and lifestyles, loves and intrigues, politics and people, and transform our encounter with art into an exciting adventure. Book jacket.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Foreword (p. 9)
• Counsel for the afterlife: Anonymous: From the Papyrus of Ani, c. 1300 BC (p. 10)
• Group portrait with empress: Anonymous: The Empress Theodora with her Retinue, c. 547 (p. 16)
• Palaces crumble but books remain: Limburg Brothers: Miniature for the month of January from the Tres Riches Heures of the Duke of Berry, c. 1415 (p. 22)
• An angel in the living room: Robert Campin: The Merode Triptych, c. 1422/1430 (p. 28)
• Jerusalem on the horizon: Hubert & Jan van Eyck: The Adoration of the Lamb, 1432 (p. 34)
• An Italian in Bruges: Jan van Eyck: The Arnolfini Marriage, 1434 (p. 40)
• Monument to a military leader: Paolo Uccello: The Battle of San Romano, c. 1435 (p. 46)
• The King's mistress posing as the Virgin: Jean Fouquet: The Melun Diptych, c. 1456 (p. 52)
• A Small Saint in a Vasty Building: Antonello da Messina: St Jerome, 1460/1475 (p. 58)
• Looking back to the Middle Ages: Hans Memling: The Passion, c. 1470/71 (p. 64)
• A grim male ballet: Antonio and Piero del Pollaiolo: The Martyrdom of St Sebastian, 1475 (p. 70)
• A magnificent picture for a dubious moneychanger: Sandro Botticelli: The Adoration of the Magi, c. 1475 (p. 76)
• Jason sails for unknown shores: Ercole de' Roberti/Lorenzo Costa: The Ship of the Argonauts, c. 1480/1490 (p. 82)
• The Sinner and the Eccentric: Hieronymos Bosch: The Ship of Fools, 1480/1516 (p. 88)
• A fearless charge for the myth of Venice: Vittore Carpaccio: St George and the Dragon, 1502/1507 (p. 94)
• How Bellini imagined a city: Gentile Bellini: St Mark Preaching at Alexandria, 1504-1507 (p. 100)
• The man, the naked woman and the bolt of lightning: Giorgione: The Tempest, c. 1507 (p. 106)
• Heaven's gates are already opened to receive the bride: Lucas Cranach the Elder: The Martyrdom of St Catherine, c. 1508 (p. 112)
• In praise of lies and deceit: Pinturicchio: Penelope and the Suitors, 1509 (p. 118)
• The music of the spheres on earthly instruments: Matthias Grunewald: The Nativity panels from the Isenheim Altar, 1512/1516 (p. 124)
• When wings no longer soar: Albrecht Durer: Melencholia I, 1514 (p. 130)
• The goddess with the mercenary's hat: Niklaus Manuel Deutsch: The Judgement of Paris, 1516/1528 (p. 136)
• Sodom burns, while those who have escaped celebrate: Netherlandish Master: Lot and his Daughters, c. 1530 (p. 142)
• A foreign merchant in his office: Hans Holbein the Younger: Portrait of the Merchant Georg Gisze, 1532 (p. 148)
• In the end the artist, too, was cheated: Titian: Pope Paul III and his grandsons, 1545 (p. 154)
• The miracle in the water: Lucas Cranach the Elder: The Fountain of Youth, 1546 (p. 160)
• A Catholic makes an approach to the Protestants: Wolf Huber: Crucifixion Allegory, c. 1550 (p. 166)
• A hero takes a dip: Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Icarus, 1558 (p. 172)
• God's order is not in force here: Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Dulle Griet, 1562 (p. 178)
• A village in winter: Pieter Bruegel the Elder: The Census at Bethlehem, 1566 (p. 184)
• A downward path: Pieter Bruegel the Elder: The Blind Leading the Blind, 1568 (p. 190)
• A painter discovers life in the raw: Annibale Carracci: The Butcher's Shop, c. 1583 (p. 196)
• Two cool beauties in the tub: School of Fontainebleau: Gabrielle d'Estrees and one of her sisters, c. 1600 (p. 202)
• A hero dies upright: Peter Paul Rubens: The Dying Seneca, 1611/1615 (p. 208)
• Courtly delight in the vagrant life: Georges de La Tour: The Musicians' Quarrel, 1620/1630 (p. 214)
• Not the Prodigal Son: Gerard van Honthorst: Jovial Company, 1622 (p. 220)
• A royal match: Peter Paul Rubens: Henri IV receives the portrait of Maria de' Medici, 1622/1625 (p. 226)
• Bad company: Georges de La Tour: The Sharper, c. 1630 (p. 232)
• Surgeons lay the human being bare: Rembrandt: The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp, 1632 (p. 238)
• A Frenchman in Rome: Nicolas Poussin: The Rape of the Sabine Women, 1637/1639 (p. 244)
• Parading for Amsterdam: Rembrandt: The Night Watch, 1642 (p. 250)
• A rich man sitting in the street: Jan Steen: The Burgher of Delft and his Daughter, 1655 (p. 256)
• The end of the Habsburgs in Madrid: Diego Velazquez: Las Meninas, 1656 (p. 262)
• A morning at the art dealer's: Antoine Watteau: Shop-sign for the Art Dealer Gersaint, 1720 (p. 268)
• In praise of the freshly laundered shirt: Jean Simeon Chardin: The Laundress, 1733 (p. 274)
• The birth of the nuclear family: Francois Boucher: The Breakfast, 1739 (p. 280)
• The stage is clear for the Countess and her lover: William Hogarth: Marriage A-la-Mode: 4. The Toilette, c. 1743 (p. 286)
• A lecherous bull as sweet seducer: Francois Boucher: The Rape of Europa, 1747 (p. 292)
• Carnival in Venice: Giandomenico Tiepolo: The Minuet, c. 1754 (p. 298)
• Travelling showmen at the fair of illusions: Giandomenico Tiepolo: The Tooth Drawer, c. 1754 (p. 304)
• The jewel in Saxony's crown: Bernardo Bellotto, also called Canaletto: Dresden Old Town seen from the end of the New Town Bridge, 1765 (p. 310)
• Those with no prospects in England go to India: Sir Joshua Reynolds: George Clive with his Family and an Indian Maidservant, c. 1765 (p. 316)
• Yesterday's people: Francisco de Goya: The Family of Charles IV, 1800 (p. 322)
• A sombre ceremony: Francisco de Goya: The Inquisition Tribunal, c. 1815 (p. 328)
• Fantasy of an unemployed architect: Karl Friedrich Schinkel: Cathedral Overlooking a City, 1813 (p. 334)
• The tomb with no one in it: Caspar David Friedrich: Hutten's Tomb, c. 1823 (p. 340)
• A Painter on the Barricades: Eugene Delacroix: Liberty Leading the People, 1830 (p. 346)
• Japanese on their travels: Ando Hiroshige: Morning Mist by Mishima, c. 1833 (p. 352)
• Journey to a realm of light and colour: Eugene Delacroix: Women of Algiers in their Apartments, 1834 (p. 358)
• After the Uprising: Adolph Menzel: Lying in the State of the Dead in the March Revolution in Berlin, 1848 (p. 364)
• The programme of Modernism: Edouard Manet: Music in the Tuileries Gardens, 1862 (p. 370)
• The queen murders her children: Anselm Feuerbach: Medea, 1870 (p. 376)
• Royalty under the lime trees: Adolph Menzel: The Departure of King Wilhelm I for the Army on 31 July 1870, 1871 (p. 382)
• Unease in the shade of the trees: Claude Monet: Camille Monet on a Garden Bench (The Bench), 1873 (p. 388)
• Dancing on a Sunday on Montmartre: Auguste Renoir: Au Moulin de la Galette, 1876 (p. 394)
• Under the umbrella, loneliness: Gustave Caillebotte: Paris Street, Rainy Day, 1877 (p. 400)
• A victim along Spain's path to world power: Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz: Joanna the Mad beside her Husband's Coffin, 1877 (p. 406)
• A dream of the South and of death: Arnold Bocklin: The Isle of the Dead, 1880 (p. 412)
• The world is out of joint: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: Potsdamer Platz, 1914 (p. 418)
• Appendix (p. 424)