title_body: Kindle vs Hyperlinked Images
upvoted_answer: (I assume you are talking about an internal, not external link. Is that right?) 
  
  Here are some helpful clues and semi-educated guesses. 
  
  The epub3 spec doesn't say anything about whether reading systems need to support this feature. Also, there is nothing in the Content Document spec which forbids this. So I wouldn't think that a hyperlinked image would cause a validation problem. (I could be wrong though).
  
  By default, touching an area with a graphic in a reading system will simply enlarge the image. But currently vior for the the touchscreen reading systems I know is that when you click an image, it enlarges that image.  You would need some way to let the reader know that the image is also a link. 
  
  Here are some guesses: 
  
  1)the reading system would need to indicate dual actions for the image OR 
  2)you would need some scripting language that would permit the  opening of a link. 
  
  Personally, I see no reason why a reading system shouldn't include hyperlinked images; indeed, the hover action does seem to trigger actions in certain contexts on a tablet.  In contrast to web browsers, ebook reading systems don't seem designed to permit animation or interactivity. This could change. 
  
  One feature which is semi-supported on iBooks is aside popups. http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2015/best-practices-for-ebook-back-matter-footnotes-and-endnotes/ If the goal is simply to provide data for each art work, a simple popup might do the trick. Or you could add a caption to each image which shows the information you want.