Books with big and juicy pictures

  Dionysiac  initiation, c. 70 B.C.E

Jean-Dominique Ingres, The Grand Odalisque, 1814

 Leonardo da Vinci, Portrait of Gineva de' Benci, 1474

 Hans Holbein the Younger, The Ambassadors, 1533

 Robert Campin, Portrait of Robert de Masmines, 1425

 Rogier Van Der Weyden, Portrait of a Lady, 1460

 Antonello da Messina, Portrait of a Young Man, 1475

 Luca Signorelli, Portrait of an Elderly Man, 1492

 Giovanni Bellini, Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredon, 1501

 Lucas Cranach the Elder, Portrait of Johannes Cuspinian and His First Wife,  Anna Putsch, 1503

 Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of the Merchant Georg Gisze, 1532

 Raphael, Portrait of Maddalena Doni, 1506

 Raphael, Portrait of a Young Woman, 1520

Parmigianino, Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror, 1523

 Jacopo Da Pontormo, Portrait of Halberdier, 1529

 Guiseppe Arcimboldo, Emperor Rudolf 2nd as Vertumnus, 1591

 Domenichino, Portrait of Monsignor Giovanni Battista Agucchi, 1615

 Rembrandt Harmensz. Van Rijn, The Company of Frans Banning Cocq, 1642

 Anthony Van Dyck, Self-Portrait with Sunflower, 1632

 Jacques-Louis David, Bonaparte Crossing the Great Saint Bernhard Pass, 1801

 Victor Emil Janssen, Self-Portrait at the Easel, 1830

 Hans Von Marees and Arnold Bocklin (self-portraits, 1870)

 Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Gertrude Stein, 1905

 Henri Matisse, Portrait of Madame Matisse (the green line), 1905

 Oskar Kokoschka, Portrait of Adolf  Loos, 1909

 Otto Dix, Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden, 1926

 Chuck Close, Phil, 1969

Ford Max Brown, The Last of England, 1855

 Henry Wallis, The stonebreaker, 1857

 Thomas Bush Kennington, Homeless, 1890

 Alfred Ducote, Emigration, or Flight of fair game, 1832

 Francis Hustwick, The Great Britain, 1853

 Thomas Robertson, Red Jacket, Lightning and James, 1856

 Felix Vallotton, The rape of Europa, 1908

 Raphael Delorme, Girl and Pigeons, 1925

 Tamara de Lempicka, Les Deux Amies, 1923

 Jean Dupas, The Judgement of Paris, 1923

 Jean Dupas, Woman with Ship Hat, 1928

 Raphael Delorme, Baroque Fantasy,  1930

Balthus, The Window, 1933

 Balthus, Portrait of Madame Peirre Loeb, 1934

William Roberts, Red Turban, 1921

 Edward Reginald Frampton, Landscape

Joseph Southall, Brigs at Fowey, 1917

One afternoon I found myself in the library, I plucked out several heavy books and sat between the isles immersing myself in the paintings and their stories. I've gathered the ones that caught me the most and shared them with you here.