Paintings in 2001: A Space Odyssey

I have always admired Stanley Kubrick's film ``2001: A Space Odyssey'' for its immense range of space and time, and its willingness to linger over details. One of the many visually impressive scenes is at the end, where Dave Bowman finds himself apparently living for many years in a grand room decorated with renaissance art.

We are shown these paintings several times; knowing how much thought went in to every image, I can't help wonder if these paintings have some historical significance. I cannot identify them. Perhaps you can help...

Close-ups of the paintings

I think there are four paintings on the room. These are the best images I could capture of each painting.

A closer view

Other views

You can also see the full frame images. They are digital grabs from the remastered DVD so I'm afraid the poor quality is as good as it gets until there's a HD edition.

All images on one page.