What do the paintings in Rogue Legacy depict?

Whenever I find a special room with a giant painting, it attacks before I have time to really examine the picture. I'm guessing they are previous games by the developer or other indie games they support. Can anyone confirm this? And if that is the case, which games are referenced with which paintings?

Solution 1:

Most of the time they do not attack; you apparently have just been getting unlucky.

In the rooms that don't attack you, you'll be able to read a few paragraphs from the developers about it by pressing 'up' in front of the painting. The pictures are all of previous games made by the developers.

Solution 2:

You are correct. Hit up when standing under the paintings to read some developers' notes about the games themselves.