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This painting shows the Virgin Mary, half-length, standing behind a balustrade with the Christ Child seated beside her on a raised step. It is by Garofalo, a leading painter of the School of Ferrara active in the early 16th century.
This tender painting shows the Virgin Mary tenderly embracing the Christ Child, who stands blessing with his right hand on her lap. It is attributed to the Venetian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, painted between 1470 and 1480.
This porcelain plate, painted over the glaze in black and gold, depicts the Resurrection of Christ, with an angel seated on his tomb and soldiers asleep in the foreground. It was made between 1740 and 1760, with a decorative band around the rim.
This silver plaquette depicts the Resurrection of Christ, with three soldiers sleeping in the foreground and an archer looking up in alarm behind them. It was made in 1605 by the Dutch goldsmith Paulus van Vianen, renowned for his refined figurative relief work.
This panel shows Christ stepping from the tomb holding a banner of victory and raising his right hand in blessing, while soldiers startle awake or sleep on around him. It is attributed to the circle of the Master of the Amsterdam Death of the Virgin, active around 1485-1500.
The ornamental frame of this domestic altar, richly decorated with grotesques, garlands, satyrs and putti, is based on prints by the Antwerp sculptor Cornelis Floris. Its style is a distinctive south Netherlandish variant of Italian Renaissance ornament, dating from around 1550.
This triptych is the earliest known and best-preserved verre eglomise painting, a type of reverse painting on glass, from the northern Netherlands. It is still in its original frame and shows the Last Supper flanked by portraits of the donors who commissioned it.
This painting shows Christ seated with his disciples around a table in a room lit by candlelight. It is by the Dutch Golden Age painter Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, a pupil of Rembrandt who developed his own successful career as a history painter in Amsterdam.
Jerome and Catherine sit on a grass-covered bench before some rose bushes. The two saints can be identified by their attributes: Jerome with the lion, and Catherine with the sword and the broken wheel of her martyrdom. The painting was made in Bruges or Brussels around 1480-1490.
This altarpiece was made in the then modern Renaissance style, using the modern material of tin-glazed earthenware. Its inscription records that it was commissioned in 1502 by Sister Catherine, daughter of Tomaso di Salvestro, for the church of Sant'Antonio Abate in Cortona, Italy.
Saint Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin in the 4th century, is considered the most learned of the four Church Fathers. Lorenzo Monaco depicted him in the corner of his study, accompanied by the lion that befriended him after he removed a thorn from its paw.
This painting shows Mary turning toward the angel Gabriel, who kneels before her holding a branch of lilies, as she kneels before a table with an open book. Above, the dove of the Holy Spirit descends amid little angels on clouds. It is by the Spanish Baroque painter Bartolome Esteban Murillo.
More than fifteen years after his etched Annunciation to the Shepherds, Rembrandt revisited the theme in this drawing around 1650. It is considerably more austere than the earlier etching, but the emotions remain intense as people and animals are startled by the heavenly apparition.
This small relief of the Nativity, carved from walrus ivory with traces of red polychromy, dates from around 1180. It measures only about 8.9 x 7.3 cm and is an early example of Romanesque devotional carving.
This prayer nut, carved from boxwood with silver and gold fittings, opens to reveal miniature scenes of the Nativity and the Adoration of the Magi carved in astonishing detail. It is only 48mm in diameter and comes from the workshop of Adam Dircksz, active in the early 16th century.
This sculpture of the Nativity, attributed to Hans Kamensetzer around 1470, shows the painstaking, calligraphic rendering of figures associated with the style of the Dutch sculptor Nicolaas Gerhaert van Leyden, known for the grace and spatial coherence of his work.
This painting shows the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child seated before a window overlooking a city with a canal. The child holds a string of beads in his hands. It is by Bergognone, a painter of the Lombard Renaissance who worked mainly in Milan and Pavia.
For his depiction of Golgotha, the mountain on which Christ was crucified, the artist chose a high viewpoint. In doing so, he created a vast landscape in which to represent successive episodes of the Passion of Christ simultaneously. This narrative convention was often used in medieval painting.
This photo shows Lieutenant Commander Eduardo Amora leading Catholic Mass in the crew training room aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance (DDG 111) while underway in the Pacific Ocean on August 2, 2024. It was taken by a U.S. Navy Mass Communication Specialist and is in the public domain
This 1932 illustration shows Christ rising from the tomb. It is by the German painter Gebhard Fugel, who specialized in Christian subjects and was the leading artist of the large Crucifixion Panorama created for the pilgrimage site of Altotting.
This engraving, made around 1475-1480, shows Saint Christopher carrying the Christ Child across a river. It is by Martin Schongauer, the most important printmaker working north of the Alps before Albrecht Durer, who collected and studied his work.
This painting, made around 1544, depicts Saul's dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus, where he was struck down by a vision of Christ and became the Apostle Paul. It is an early work by Jacopo Tintoretto, the Venetian Mannerist painter known for his bold brushwork and dramatic use of perspecti
This painting shows the body of Christ being laid in the tomb after the Crucifixion. It is by the Flemish Baroque painter Jacob Jordaens, who, alongside Rubens and van Dyck, was one of the leading painters working in Antwerp in the 17th century.
This engraving shows the shepherds kneeling before the newborn Christ at his birth in Bethlehem. It is by the Dutch engraver Cornelis Bloemaert, a member of a prominent family of printmakers who worked in Utrecht and later in Rome.
