Alexander,
Thank you for the link to your portfolio example. It's a good example of the responsive design you've outlined, but it uses JavaScript to achieve much of its effect. I've now read four books on CSS and concluded that a "styles-only" solution to this problem is beyond my limited capability. I haven't come up with anything that I have confidence in across popular browsers and versions.
I'm open to any new ideas, but I don't know when I'll make any more progress on this issue.