Public domain Catholic and Bible paintings from the medieval art period.
For the medieval viewer, this Crucifixion instantly recalled wrenching extra-biblical details, like the fact that Christ could not rest his head to the side lest his shoulders be pierced with thorns.
As Passion obsession developed, so did indulgences, which reduced one's punishment for sins. In the fifteenth century, people who prayed to Christ's body could earn 300 days per limb.
The Coronation of the Virgin celebrates the culminating scene in the narrative cycle of the life of the Virgin. The subject follows Mary’s ascent into heaven after her death. Surrounded by a choir of music-making angels, the Virgin kneels to accept her crown from God and Christ.
These pinnacles were originally set on top of a multipanel altarpiece that has now been lost. The angels' gestures and glances suggest that they were placed to the left and right of a central image.
The Virgin Mary, hieratic and still, looks out toward the viewer while gently supporting Christ with her left arm. The smiling infant gazes lovingly toward her and playfully stretches out his arm, grabbing the edge of her gold-trimmed, blue cloak.
For the medieval viewer, this Crucifixion instantly recalled wrenching extra-biblical details, like the fact that Christ could not rest his head to the side lest his shoulders be pierced with thorns.
According to tradition, John the Baptist wears a hair shirt under a white cloth, associated with newly baptized Christians. The flag bearing a red cross symbolizes resurrection. In marked contrast, the background features a lavish gold-patterned silk.
This is a stained glass window—designed in North Netherlands—portrays the story told in I Kings 17: 8-24, in the city of Zarephath the prophet Elijah met a widow gathering sticks who gave him food and drink.
This diptych, or two-panel painting, is hinged at the center so that it could be opened and closed and easily transported. It was clearly designed as an object for private devotion. The owner would have been able to contemplate the Passion of Christ and pray before these scenes.
This small but opulent panel painting was once joined to another panel with hinges to form a diptych. Given its small size, its original function was for private devotional use. It could be folded like a book when not in use and was highly portable.
This central panel from an altarpiece shows the Madonna seated on a throne with the infant Christ, surrounded by kneeling angels and six-winged seraphim. Below is an image of the dead Christ flanked by the Virgin Mary and Saint John.
Jean de Beaumetz became the official court painter to the Burgundian duke, Philip the Bold, in 1376. Between 1389 and 1395 he created devotional paintings for the monks’ cells at the Chartreuse de Champmol, the monastery founded by Philip and his wife Margaret to house the ducal tombs.
It is likely this pair of enamel plaques depicting the apostles Simon with Thaddeus and Thomas with Matthew once formed part of the decoration of a portable altar, a reliquary triptych, or some other kind of liturgical object.
This initial B, introducing the first psalm, Beatus vir, represents King David who is shown here playing a psaltery, a stringed instrument consisting of a shallow box that is plucked, instead of his more traditional harp. The psaltery was widely popular in Europe during the 14th and 15th centuries.
This miniature was taken from a choir book and shows two female figures. Their golden halos mark them as saints and the lily scepters as virgins. It is attributed to the Sienese painter Niccolò di ser Sozzo.
Lucia of Syracuse (283–304), also called Saint Lucia (Latin: Sancta Lucia) or Saint Lucy, was a Christian martyr who died during the Diocletianic Persecution. She is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Eastern Orthodox churches. She is one of eight women (including Saint Mary)...
According to The Golden Legend, Margaret the Virgin was a native of Antioch and the daughter of a pagan priest named Aedesius. Her mother having died soon after her birth, Margaret was nursed by a Christian woman five or six leagues (6.9–8.3 miles) from Antioch. Having embraced...
Lucy's history has been lost and all we really know for certain is that this brave woman who lived in Syracuse lost her life during the persecution of Christians in the early fourth century. Her veneration spread to Rome so that by the sixth century the whole Church...
In a barren, mountainous landscape, the three wise kings Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar meet to continue their journey to Bethlehem. Heralds on prancing horses blare trumpets to proclaim the unification of humankind at the birth of Jesus. On the peaked mountains above, the kings appear again at an earlier moment....
Once part of an altarpiece, this side wing and its companion were commissioned in 1408 by the confraternity of the Virgin and Saint Stephen for the church of Santo Stefano in Pane on the outskirts of Florence. The central panel featured a Coronation of the Virgin that is now in...
The artist covered the sides and reverse of this panel with a thin layer of gesso (a type of plaster), allowing the texture of the rough wood to remain visible. He then painted it to resemble porphyry, a beautiful and valuable stone. Source [https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1924.199]...
This is a rare example of a surviving 15th-century painting from the northern provinces of the Netherlands (present-day Holland). This region had fewer centers of artistic production than the more populous southern Netherlands, and it also experienced substantial destruction of artworks during the iconoclastic outbursts of the mid-...
The style of this painting suggests that it comes from Catalonia in northeastern Spain, though the identity of its artist remains unknown. The painting represents a youthful bishop-saint identifiable by a bishop’s symbols of authority, his miter and crozier. He wears rich vestments. Below, the figure in black...
Probably intended for a small chapel, this triptych shows the Virgin Mary in the center flanked by Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Paul. On the left panel Saint Thomas Aquinas wears the Dominican habit and holds a book of his writings. On the right panel, Saint Paul turns toward the...
