Did the Greek gods play tennis? What is the ambassador from the land of Alchemy telling us? What secrets are being told on the shores of the Island of Venus? And what is the monk doing on the Ship of Fools? These and other questions are asked about famous works of art in this book from the successful "Examining Paintings"-series. Suddenly the pictures come alive and relate previously untold stories. In their own language they recall earlier fashions and opinions, trends and intrigues, and tell of love, sin and lifestyles from the past.

Powerful men and their mistresses, painters and models all come together in this illustrated history of culture. They cease to be two-dimensional figures of art and become flesh and blood before our eyes. This is thanks to the forensic sixth sense with which the two authors expose the secrets of the paintings under scrutiny. They spotlight each individual section of the painting, analyse them, and then put them back together again like a huge jigsaw puzzle, revealing the history of art as a lively panorama of forgotten worlds.

For once, works of art are not to be enjoyed simply as art for art's sake, but as a living testimony of bygone times.

Propaganda on cloth

"A garden inclosed is my spouse"

A deceptive idyll

A saint with a practical turn of mind

May God help the Chancellor

What is Christ doing beside Lake Geneva?

A Christian artisan advertises his craft

A family sings its own praises

The splendours of a small dynasty

An empire collapses; the painter retreats

Hocus-pocus, Inquisition and demons

The patrons watch over the city

Shock treatment for the intractable

A cart trundles towards damnation

Fairest daughter of heaven and waves

The merchants of Venice

A message from the world of alchemy

Strange quartet

Composure in the face of misfortune

The femme fatale charms the devout viewer

The battle to end all battles

Careers in the king's service

From the canopy of Heaven to a four-poster bed

The utopia of common huntsmanship

The Lord sits at the table of lords

The Antwerp building boom

Apostle wanted

For Tiber, read Seine

The barn is full-time for a wedding!

Faith in the magic festivals

Aspirations to immortality

Two saints bury the munificent donor

A woman thwarts Spain's pride

The princess in the hospital

Tyrannicide by tender hand

The theatre of cruelty

Double-dealing hands and eyes

Grateful for the gift of sensuous pleasure

The victor honours a defeated enemy

The writing on the wall

Tho' our wealthy days be done, here's to a life of luxury

A nude for the king

The Governor's catalogue

An Old Testament family portrait

A Careerist bathes in the Sun King's radiance

Life: a drawing-room comedy

Cultivated leisure, music and champagne

The fine art of extravagance

The proper combination of activity and leisure

Every convent had its salon

Tennis with Apollo

Politics as a dirty business

What's in a square

A star-machine explains the universe

The marriage of Venice with the sea

A German icon

The holy revolutionary

The black widow, beautiful and deadly

Grand entrance in the cathedral

A martyr's death at dawn

A view to infinity

Dramatic struggle for survival

A Romantic's Asiatic tour de force

Across the river and into the past

The German painting best-loved by Germans

The greatest amateur musician of the nation

A studio opens its doors to the world

A fragrance of women and the Orient

The wrong uniform exposes the true culprit

A look behind the scenes

Keeping in the time with machines

Laughing struggle for freedom

Venue for gentry, bourgeoisie and boheme

Declaration of love for the capital of the world

In the paradise of the petite bourgeoisie, all are strangers

An inflammatorv protest acqainst dictatorship

Jesus Christ, the lonely contemporary

Not long until it bursts apart

The Vitebsk Man of Sorrows

400 years at a glance

Appendix