Free downloadable public domain Catholic paintings on the topic of the Bible.
Details: On this leaf, lively figures tell the story of Christ’s Crucifixion and of his appearances after the Resurrection. They are part of an extensive picture cycle from an early 14th-century book disassembled almost 200 years ago, its illustrated pages now scattered in libraries and private collections. The text...
Details: At the turn of the century, Henri de Groux was among the most respected members of the Belgian avant-garde. In Christ among His Tormentors, de Groux’ s most ambitious print, Christ cowers next to Pontius Pilate as he is jeered by the crowd that will ultimately sentence him to...
Details: This masterful initial M, colorful and crowded with playful animals and fantastic forms, recalls the announcement to the Virgin Mary by the Angel Gabriel that she will conceive and bear a son: Missus est Gabriel Angelus ad Miriam Virginem. . . . (The Angel Gabriel was sent to Mary. . . .), the response for...
Details: The shepherd boy, resting with his bucket, milk can, and yoke, guides our eye to travelers in the distance. They are Tobias and the archangel Raphael, whose tale is told in some versions of the Christian Bible. Tobias, a young Jewish man, was sent off by his blind father...
Details: One of the most influential landscape painters of the early modern era, Lorrain was a master of the “ideal landscape,” which combined lush foliage and a tranquil atmosphere with allusions to an idyllic, imaginary past. The intention was to create views more beautiful and harmonious than nature itself. In...
Details: Little is known about the life and career of Sint Jans. He seems to have been born in Haarlem in Holland in the northern Low Countries where he may have been attached to the Knights of Saint John as a lay brother, and likely produced an altarpiece for that...
Details: This landscape painting of Jacob wrestling with the angel is by Bartholomeus Breenbergh. Breenbergh was a Dutch Golden Age painter of Italian and Italianate landscapes, in Rome and Amsterdam. The subject, Jacob wrestling with the angel, is described in Genesis chapter32 verses 22–32; and also referenced in Hosea...
Details: Although Veronese is best known for his large-scale, pageant-like presentations, here the artist has taken the narrative of the Annunciation (the announcement of the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive and bear a son) and compressed the figures close to one another, creating a startling...
Details: In this image of the Holy Family, Joseph and Mary lean in to admire the Christ Child while a shepherd looks on, leaning on his staff. Before executing this painting, Battista visited Rome, including an extensive study of Raphael's works. Afterward, Battista began a second style of...
Details: Psalters were commonly used in monasteries and convents during the Middle Ages; the exact origin of this detached psalter leaf, however, is unclear. Stylistically it relates to a small number of manuscripts produced at Prüfening Abbey near Regensburg and to other examples associated with scriptoria at Augsburg from the...
Details: This large initial A introduces the matins (about 2:30 AM) response for Easter: Angelus Domini descendit de celo... (An angel of the Lord descended from heaven...). The letter that begins the text is commonly and appropriately decorated with a depiction of this Easter morning event. The three holy...
Details: After their initial meeting, Abraham graciously offered to feed the angels and wash their feet. Following the meal, they announce that his wife Sarah, long past child-bearing age, will soon have a son, fulfilling a promise God had made earlier to Abraham. The artist presents the moment of revelation,...
Details: This painting depicts the biblical story of the Supper at Emmaus, when the disguised, resurrected Christ suddenly reveals himself to two astonished disciples as they all sit down to dinner. The artist has painted the figures’ hands and the objects on the table meticulously, but leaves other details vague,...
Details: This dreamlike painting shows Jacob’s encounter with an angel on his journey home to Canaan. Jacob had sent his family and servants ahead to meet his twin brother Esau, along with his best livestock to be given as a peace offering. Left alone in the night, Jacob met...
Details: This scene is the moving conclusion of the story of Tobias, the young man at the right. It addresses the themes of family devotion and trust. Tobias’s father sent him on a long journey to retrieve family money. The angel Raphael appeared as a relative, offering the traveler...
Details: Gutenberg's Bible appeared in 1455. The first book to combine his invention with printed illustrations appeared in 1463. At about the same time, perhaps a little earlier or a little later, a different kind of printed illustrated book-the blockbook-began to appear. Gutenberg's catered to a...
Details: The Book of Tobit (/ˈtoʊbɪt/) is a 3rd or early 2nd century BCE Jewish work describing how God tests the faithful, responds to prayers, and protects the covenant community (i.e., the Israelites). It tells the story of two Israelite families, that of the blind Tobit in Nineveh and...
Details: Cavallino worked in Naples where he was not well known during his lifetime, but was alert to the work of contemporaries whose innovations he transformed with extraordinary delicacy and charm. The adoration of the shepherds is a traditional subject, but here Cavallino shows it in a new light. The...
Details: This illuminated manuscript of the Four Gospels was created at a monastic center in northern Ethiopia. Twenty full-page paintings depict scenes from the life of Christ and four portraits of the evangelists introduce the respective Gospel texts. The New Testament was translated from Greek into Geez, the classical language...
Details: This illuminated manuscript of the Four Gospels was created at a monastic center in northern Ethiopia. Twenty full-page paintings depict scenes from the life of Christ and four portraits of the evangelists introduce the respective Gospel texts. The New Testament was translated from Greek into Geez, the classical language...
Details: In The Crucifixion with the Converted Centurion, Lucas Cranach the Elder chose to portray a scene of religious redemption. The crucified Christ, silhouetted against a darkened and troubled sky, is at the point of death; his last words from the cross are inscribed above him in German: VATER IN...
Details: The Finding of Moses is a 1580 oil on canvas painting by Paolo Veronese of the finding of Moses, which has been in the Musee des Beaux Arts de Dijon since 1812. Its attribution to Veronese is early, with Lépicié stating it was "painted by the artist at...
Details The Adoration of the Magi by the Venetian artist Paolo Veronese is a large oil painting on canvas dated to 1573 which has been in the National Gallery, London since 1855, shortly after it was sold by the Venetian church for which it was commissioned. It shows the common...
Details The largest painting ever done by Caravaggio and the only one he signed. The subject of the painting is the execution of John the baptist. According to the gospels Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, had imprisoned John the Baptist. Herod was so pleased by the dancing of...
