Reliquary Bust of a Female Saint (early 16th century) by South Netherlandish artist - Public Domain Catholic Stock Photo
Reliquary bust of a female saint by a South Netherlandish artist, made in the early 16th century.
Shalone Cason
This site's editor-in-chief is a Catholic husband, father, and author. He loves sharing the Catholic faith through art and graphic design. Check out his prayer books and coloring books on Amazon.com
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Head of Christ (late 15th-early 16th century) by Netherlandish artist - Public Domain Catholic Stock Photo
Piety in the late Middle Ages encouraged the believer's intense emotional empathy in the suffering of Christ. Here, stone is transformed into flesh by the actual wood thorns piercing the forehead. The capacity for sculptural naturalism developed in Burgundy by Claus Sluter (ca. 1360–before 1406) and Niclaus...
Crib of the Infant Jesus (15th century) by unknown - Public Domain Catholic Stock Photo
Miniature cradles for the Christ Child were popular devotional objects in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and were venerated, especially in convents, where they were often presented to women taking their vows. This splendid cradle comes from the Grand Béguinage of Louvain, Belgium, established for lay women in the twelfth...
Entombment of Christ (ca. 1515) by French - Public Domain Catholic Stock Photo
The coats of arms of the donors, Pons de Gontaut and his brother Armand, in whose family funerary chapel this sculpture and the Pietà opposite originally stood, were held by the angels. The donors are represented in the Pietà. Free DownloadThis image is in the public domain.entombment-of-christ....
Saint Catherine of Alexandria (early 15th century) by unknown - Public Domain Catholic Stock Photo
Saint Catherine, depicted in the delicately jeweled statuette, was seen to embody the power of Christian erudition. According to legend, Saint Catherine's learned arguments on behalf of Christianity converted not only the court philosophers of the pagan emperor Maxentius, but 200 guardian soldiers and the ruler's...
Four Icons from a Pair of Doors (Panels), possibly part of a Polyptych: John the Theologian and Prochoros, the Baptism (Epiphany), Harrowing of Hell (Anastasis), and Saint Nicholas (early 15th century) by unknown - Public Domain Orthodox Icon
Exquisitely painted, these icons represent the height of icon painting during the last decades of Byzantine rule from Constantinople. Detailed representations of the Baptism of Christ and the Anastasis, the Easter image of the Orthodox Church, animate the major events with related narratives. Saint John dictates to his scribe, Prochoros,...
The Presentation in the Temple (no date) by Byzantine Painter - Public Domain Orthodox Icon
The Hypapante is one of the Great Feasts of the Orthodox church. According to the Gospel of Luke (2:22–38), when Joseph (far left) and the Virgin (center) presented Christ in the temple for the rite of purification forty days after his birth, his divinity was immediately recognized by...
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Two Angels (ca. 1440) by Fra Filippo Lippi - Public Domain Catholic Painting
The Virgin Mary, known as "the rose without thorns" for having been born free of original sin, holds the symbolic flower while sitting upon the Throne of Wisdom. The scroll held by an angel reads: "Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled...
Madonna and Child with Saints Philip and Agnes (ca. 1425–30) by Donato de' Bardi - Public Domain Catholic Painting
Donato de’ Bardi’s style brings together Netherlandish and French influences, focusing on refined detail and careful study of light. At the center of this painting, which is still in its original frame, Donato captures the sheltering affection between the infant Christ and Madonna. Gesturing to the goldfinch in his...
Crucifixion (ca. 1425–30) by Donato de' Bardi - Public Domain Catholic Painting
Donato de’ Bardi’s style blends Netherlandish and French influences, emphasizing refined detail and careful study of light. Free DownloadThis image is in the public domain.crucifixion.jpg376 KBdownload-circle Please SUBSCRIBE or DONATE to help keep this site free!...
Weekly Newsletter - January 23, 2026
Welcome to this week's newsletter! Enjoy our Weekly Picks: The Annunciation (1510–20) by Hans Schäufelein - Public Domain Catholic Stock Photo Madonna and Child (1310) by Segna di Buonaventura - Public Domain Catholic Painting The Temptation of Christ, From the Life of Christ, Plate 11 (1534-35) by Georg...
Madonna and Child with the Donor, Pietro de' Lardi, Presented by Saint Nicholas (ca. 1420–30) by Master G.Z. (possibly Michele dai Carri) - Public Domain Catholic Painting
This work plays with our expectations of the flatness of the painted surface. Using a technique of gilded gesso, the artist gave Saint Nicholas’s miter and the crowns of the holy figures a raised surface. The Virgin’s robes and the intricate, angled throne also create a sense of...
Madonna and Child Enthroned (1472) by Carlo Crivelli - Public Domain Catholic Painting
These three panels are from an altarpiece painted for a Dominican church in the Marchigian town of Ascoli Piceno. It is possible that the child was originally shown reaching for a flying bird, his frequent attribute. The cracked marble dais is a recurrent feature of Crivelli's work. On...
Madonna and Child (ca. 1480) by Vincenzo Foppa - Public Domain Catholic Painting
Foppa was the founder of Renaissance painting in Milan, where he worked for the dukes. In addition to major fresco cycles and altarpieces, he also painted touching images of the Madonna and Child for private devotion. This one dates to about 1480 and shows them before a rose hedge—the...
The Presentation in the Temple by (unknown) - Public Domain Orthodox Icon
The Hypapante is one of the Great Feasts of the Orthodox church. According to the Gospel of Luke (2:22–38), when Joseph (far left) and the Virgin (center) presented Christ in the temple for the rite of purification forty days after his birth, his divinity was immediately recognized by...
Icon with Christ Pantokrator (1350 or later) - Public Domain Orthodox Stock Photo
The inscription identifies the image as Christ Antiphonetes, an icon type used by the empress Zoe (r. 1028–50) for her coinage. Steatite, easily carved stone, usually soft green or buff in color, came to be widely used for the production of small icons. source: metmuseum.org Free DownloadThis image...
Portable Icon with the Virgin Eleousa (early 1300s) - Public Domain Orthodox Icon
Images of the Virgin Eleousa, the Virgin of Compassion, developed in the later Byzantine centuries and profoundly influenced the art of the Latin West. Here, the intimate poses of the heads and hands display the warm emotional attachment of the Virgin and Child. The fifteenth-century Latin inscription on the...
Apostle Thomas Icon (early 19th century) - Public Domain Orthodox Icon
This early 19th-century Orthodox icon depicts Thomas the Apostle, who is traditionally shown holding a scroll representing his apostolic preaching. Free DownloadThis image is in the public domain.apostle-thomas-icon.jpg56 KBdownload-circle Please SUBSCRIBE or DONATE to help keep this site free!...
Mar Gabriel of Ardishai (no date) by unknown - Public Domain Orthodox Icon
An icon depicting Mar Gabriel, a Persian Bishop and the Nestorian Metropolitan of Malabar, who was a significant spiritual and political figure in Kerala during the early 18th century. Free DownloadThis image is in the public domain.download.jpg262 KBdownload-circle Please SUBSCRIBE or DONATE to help keep this site...
Church of the Holy Apostle Thomas (Serbian: Crkva Svetog apostola Tome) (2017) by MareBG - Public Domain Byzantine Stock Photo
This is the Church of the Holy Apostle Thomas (Serbian: Crkva Svetog apostola Tome). It is situated in the Bežanijska Kosa neighborhood of New Belgrade (Novi Beograd), Serbia. It is a Serbian Orthodox church. Free DownloadThis image is in the public domain.download.jpg639 KBdownload-circle Please SUBSCRIBE or DONATE...
Dormition of Mary (Uspenie Bogoroditsy) (Dormition Church at Kondopoga) (1774) - Public Domain Orthodox Icon
This icon depicts the Dormition of the Mother of God (her "falling asleep" or death). The central figure is Christ, who stands over Mary's body holding a small, swaddled child. This child might represent Mary’s pure soul, which Christ is receiving to carry into heaven....
Then the Lord answered Job out of the Whirlwind (1825) by William Blake - Public Domain Catholic Drawing
Finally, in the Whirlwind of the mystical ecstasy, the true God is manifest. He is Jesus, the Divine Imagination, and the Forgiveness of Sins: the only God whom Blake recognized. He is in a cruciform position and his right foot is forward. He descends below the cloud-barriers which normally...
Madonna and child with the bird (17th century) by Simone Cantarini - Public Domain Catholic Drawing
The Virgin Mary sits on a stone bench. A halo of light around her head cuts through the shadows of the space. She looks tired and pensive as she cradles the baby Jesus in her lap. Any new parents can recognize the exhaustion and the weight of responsibility. She rests...
The Raising of Lazarus (late 1570 or 1580s) by Studio of Jacopo Tintoretto - Public Domain Catholic Painting
Jacopo Tintoretto ran a busy workshop in Venice, specializing in dramatic, complex religious paintings, which he produced at incredible speed. This crowded composition, with its daring foreshortening and elongated figures, is consistent with Tintoretto’s style. However, the overall quality of the execution suggests the work is by studio assistants...