Image Cred­its serves as an indis­pens­able ref­er­ence for the art­works men­tioned through­out The Art Thief, offer­ing read­ers an invalu­able oppor­tu­ni­ty to explore the vast his­to­ry of the visu­al art world. This chap­ter not only pro­vides essen­tial details about each work, such as the artist’s name, title, year of cre­ation, and the artwork’s cur­rent loca­tion or col­lec­tion, but also cre­ates a deep­er con­nec­tion between the nar­ra­tive and the artis­tic pieces that are cen­tral to the sto­ry. Through this metic­u­lous cat­a­log, read­ers gain access to the diverse worlds of cre­ativ­i­ty and his­to­ry cap­tured in the pages of the book, enabling a fuller appre­ci­a­tion of the art and its con­text. The chap­ter func­tions as a sig­nif­i­cant guide, giv­ing insight into how art influ­ences sto­ry­telling and adds lay­ers of mean­ing to the plot.

The list begins with Madeleine de France by Corneille de Lyon, dat­ing back to 1536, sourced from Bridge­man Images, and imme­di­ate­ly sets the tone for the rich vari­ety of art­works includ­ed. This ini­tial entry is fol­lowed by oth­er cel­e­brat­ed works such as Adam and Eve by Georg Petel from 1627, held in the Col­lec­tion of the City of Antwerp, and a tobac­co box craft­ed by Jean-Bap­tiste Isabey around 1805, now housed in the Valais His­to­ry Muse­um. These pieces are more than just dec­o­ra­tive; they tell the sto­ries of their time and reflect the cul­tur­al, polit­i­cal, and soci­etal influ­ences that shaped their cre­ation. The diverse geo­graph­i­cal and tem­po­ral range of the works con­tin­ues through­out the list, offer­ing read­ers a win­dow into the vast and var­ied world of artis­tic expres­sion over cen­turies.

The chap­ter con­tin­ues to engage with the work of cel­e­brat­ed artists, such as Sibylle of Cleves by Lucas Cranach the Younger and Fes­ti­val of Mon­keys by David Teniers the Younger. These pieces fur­ther deep­en the nar­ra­tive, reflect­ing their his­tor­i­cal ori­gins while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly invit­ing mod­ern-day inter­pre­ta­tions of the themes they rep­re­sent. The inclu­sion of such icon­ic works speaks to the breadth of artis­tic expres­sion present in The Art Thief, cov­er­ing every­thing from por­trai­ture to still life and even the fan­tas­ti­cal, as seen in the whim­si­cal depic­tions in Fes­ti­val of Mon­keys. The works men­tioned are emblem­at­ic of the com­plex nature of human exis­tence, bring­ing to light the inter­con­nect­ed­ness between the past and present in visu­al sto­ry­telling.

Among the oth­er mas­ter­pieces fea­tured is Alle­go­ry of Autumn, which was ini­tial­ly attrib­uted to Jan Brueghel the Elder but lat­er reas­signed to Hierony­mus Franck­en II. This art­work, along with Sleep­ing Shep­herd by François Bouch­er, draws atten­tion to the con­tin­ued influ­ence of alle­gor­i­cal rep­re­sen­ta­tion in art, with the nat­ur­al world often sym­bol­iz­ing deep­er, more abstract ideas. The works men­tioned in this sec­tion also include Pietà by Christoph Schwarz and The Apothe­cary by Willem van Mieris, rein­forc­ing the the­mat­ic con­nec­tions between reli­gious, per­son­al, and social nar­ra­tives through art. Each piece is sig­nif­i­cant not only for its aes­thet­ic beau­ty but also for its capac­i­ty to tran­scend time, offer­ing reflec­tions on human expe­ri­ence that are as rel­e­vant today as they were in their respec­tive eras.

In sum­ma­ry, the Image Cred­its chap­ter serves as a cru­cial ref­er­ence point for any­one explor­ing The Art Thief, as it ties togeth­er the vast array of art­works with the nar­ra­tive that sur­rounds them. It high­lights the impor­tance of art as a cul­tur­al arti­fact, pre­serv­ing and inter­pret­ing the lives, strug­gles, and tri­umphs of human­i­ty across cen­turies. The care­ful com­pi­la­tion of these works invites read­ers to engage more deeply with the text, offer­ing a glimpse into the com­plex­i­ties of both his­tor­i­cal con­text and per­son­al inter­pre­ta­tion in the world of art. As a tes­ta­ment to the rich lega­cy of human cre­ativ­i­ty, this chap­ter is not only a cat­a­log of paint­ings and sculp­tures but also a cel­e­bra­tion of the endur­ing pow­er of art to speak across gen­er­a­tions, bring­ing mean­ing and reflec­tion to those who engage with it.