Free to use stock images of antique Catholic items created hundreds of years ago such as: statues, holy books, chalices, crosses, and more.
Details: This ornately cast cross was originally positioned at the summit of a staff carried by an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian priest. The artist has created a symmetrical design that repeats the form of the cross ad infinitum, emphasizing its importance through repetition. The major motif is a pattée cross, a...
Details: Reliquary of gilded copper and enamel champlevé. The obverse is covered with gold leaf on which stones set in rosettes are attached, in addition to smaller rosette-shaped stamps. Furthermore, three imposed, plastic enameled half figures: Christ between two saints. On the roof surface, also covered with gold leaf, the...
Details: This delicate ivory plaque may once have decorated a side of a portable altar. It likely depicts the angel of the Lord appearing to the priest Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, at the altar in the temple. Like the identity of the object in Zacharias’s hands,...
Details: Italian fifteenth-century marble reliefs of the madonna and Child were highly esteemed by New York collectors in the first half of the twentieth century, and many were given to the Museum. Of these, the Altman Madonna by Antonio Rossellino is arguably the finest. The strong composition, subtle carving, and...
Details: This work has been associated with Johann Pieter Wagner, one of the leading Austrian sculptors of the second half of the 18th century. Because of its small size, it was most likely either a model for a larger altarpiece or an object designed for private devotion. Gold serves as...
Details: Byzantine art includes work created from the fourth century to the fifteenth century and encompassing parts of the Italian peninsula, the eastern edge of the Slavic world, the Middle East, and North Africa. The Emperor Constantine adopted Christianity and in 330 moved his capital from Rome to Constantinople (modern-day...
Details: These plaques were probably originally placed at the end of the arms of a processional cross. They are decorated in an enameling technique called basse-taille in which colorful translucent enamel pastes are fused over an engraved and chased silver plaque. Source 🙏🏽This image is in the public domain. Free...
Details: One of the masterpieces of Romanesque art, this altar cross with some ninety-two figures and ninety-eight inscriptions is the vehicle for a complex iconographic program that is unrivaled in Christian art. On one side, the stylized trunk of a tree is superimposed on the Cross, and the terminals present...
Details: In 1486, Isabel of Castile, patroness of the explorer Christopher Columbus, commissioned an elaborate alabaster tomb for her parents, Juan II of Castile and Isabel of Portugal. This star-shaped tomb, still standing in the center of the church of the Carthusian monastery of Miraflores, outside Burgos, was made between...
Details: Christ appears in the center of the principal face of the reliquary beneath the roof plaque, which depicts the hand of God flanked by two angels swinging censers. Distinguished by his cruciform nimbus, he holds a book in his left hand and raises his right hand in blessing; the...
Details: This precious silver box was created to contain a relic of the martyred English saint Thomas Becket. Saint Thomas was the archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 to 1170, and he is perhaps best known for his struggles with King Henry II of England over the separation between the rights...
Details: Inscriptions on the back of this object indicate that it served as the repository for a relic believed to be a fragment of the True Cross and that it is thought to have been made for a convent of the Poor Clares, probably in Florence. It is an extraordinary...
Details: Meant to be seen from both front and back, this large Crucifix represents Jesus hanging on the Cross, but nonetheless triumphant over death: his eyes are wide open, and he wears the gold crown of the King of Heaven. Though the original church from which this image comes is...
Details: An exceptional ivory object, this diminutive booklet is unusual in that both the exterior covers, depicting scenes of the Passion, and the interior covers, containing representations of the Virgin, are carved. The religious nature of the booklet suggests that it served as an accessory for private devotion. The painted...
Details: This miniature altar is one of the most beautiful examples of French goldsmiths’ work from the period around 1400. It may have come from the abbey of Chocques (Pas-de-Calais) and doubtless belonged to someone associated with the Paris court. Seeing Christ’s tormented body, the owner could meditate on...
Details: This precious gold cross was commissioned by Countess Gertrude (died 1077) and given to the church of Saint Blaise following the death of her husband, Count Liudolf of Brunswick (died 1038). The cross was intended to be carried in liturgical processions or to be placed on a church altar....
Details: This panel was once part of an altarpiece depicting scenes from the Passion of Christ. The other panels would have included The Ascension of Christ, all mounted within a wooden framework attached to the altar. The reliefs, made by Nottingham craftsmen, were popular in both England and continental Europe,...
Details: When Innocent X (ruled 1644-55) became pope, Alessandro Algardi endeavored to obtain his patronage. This bronze Baptism of Christ is a casting from the molds used for an original silver sculpture that Algardi presented to the new pope to gain his support. The composition depicts an important scene in...
Details: This masterpiece of Florentine embroidery takes the circular form called a tondo and was likely once attached to an altar frontal. The scene depicts the coronation of the Virgin, the final and culminating event in the narrative cycle of her life. Honoring her as queen of heaven, Christ places...
Details: Large ceremonial silver cups with covers were a status symbol in the late 16th century, particularly when gilded like this superb example from Nuremberg. Stylish and grand, these cups provided the ultimate vessel from which a royal guest or aristocratic visitor could drink at a formal banquet. They came...
0:00/1:151×Details: A pax is a small flat tablet decorated with Christian images and meant to be kissed by the priest before Communion. This plaquette likely had a tabernacle-shaped frame which has been cut away. Here the Madonna sits before a stable with a nude Christ Child...
0:00/0:431×Details: The style and quality of this manuscript's decoration is typical of deluxe Parisian books made for aristocratic or royal patrons. Most of the book's decoration appears to be the work of the Master of the Boqueteaux, an artist active at the...
0:00/0:191×Details: Once used as decorations for a reliquary shrine, each enamel plaque represents a biblical prophet: Isaiah, Zacharias, Elisha, and Hosea. Fine gold dots punctuate dark blue backgrounds. Typical of Hildesheim enamels, this detailing creates the illusion that the prophets sit against star-studded twilight skies. 🙏🏽This...
0:00/1:021×Details: These two pages come from a prayer book which belonged to Claude of France (1499-1524), queen consort of France. Claude was the daughter of the French king Louis XII and Anne of Brittany and the first wife of king Francis I of France. She received...
