Public domain Catholic and Bible paintings from the medieval art period.
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...
This panel, along with The Baptism of Christ and Madonna and Child with Five Angels were once part of the same altarpiece devoted to Saint John the Baptist. Several more components have found their way to other collections. The altarpiece’s original location is not known, though it was probably...
Against a bright red background dotted with shimmering stars, the Three Kings pay homage to Christ. The artist depicted Christ as a lively child sitting on his mother's lap, with Joseph sitting behind them. The child dips his hands into the gold coins offered to him, symbolizing his...
When this painting was made in 1333, according to the date given on the lower frame, the style was a bit old-fashioned. Saint Paul’s frontal stance, the intensity and fervor of his direct gaze, the inclusion of his name in red-backed gold letters on either side of...
This small, rich panel was originally the left side of a diptych, which, along with a right-hand panel depicting the Virgin Mary (now in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg), depicts one image of the Annunciation—the moment when the archangel Gabriel brings Mary the news that she will give...
This work was the left side of a diptych that probably depicted the Crucifixion on the opposite panel. At the lower left, looking up at a looming vision of the Virgin and Child, is a small, kneeling figure in rapt devotion. Lippo Memmi (Sienese, active 1317/1347) has given us...
This Coronation of the Virgin may be the first time the subject, which originated in the West, appears in Venetian art. Some of the earliest representations were carved above cathedral doorways in France—and certain elements in the Gallery's painting—its elaborate halos, for example—share in the...
This small painting was probably the right-hand side of a diptych with two hinged panels. Very likely the panel opposite depicted the Virgin and Child. The man or woman who meditated on this image during private devotions would have made an intimate connection with the grief of the mourners...
Simon “the Zealot” is one of Jesus’s apostles in the first three Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), but otherwise Simon is an elusive figure. Legend says that he was martyred by being sawn apart, but there is no saw to indicate his martyrdom in this half-length portrait. This...
Simone Martini depicts Saint Matthew holding a book, quill pen, and inkpot in the process of writing his Gospel. This panel, along with nine others of apostles, including three in the National Gallery of Art’s collection depicting Saint Simon, Saint James Major, and Saint Judas Thaddeus, were once part...
A popular medieval legend about Saint Margaret involves her miraculous escape after being swallowed alive by Satan disguised as a dragon. Here Margaret is shown holding the chains of a subdued dragon while blessing a donor’s coat of arms. The delicately painted features of the saint, carefully rendered costume,...
Saint Judas Thaddeus once decorated the predella of an altarpiece along with nine other small portraits of apostles, three of which are in the collection of the National Gallery of Art: Matthew, Simon, and James Major. This panel of Saint Judas Thaddeus is among the best preserved of the four...
This small panel once decorated the predella of an altarpiece along with nine other small portraits of apostles, three of which are in the collection of the National Gallery of Art: Saint Matthew, Saint Simon, and Saint Judas Thaddeus. The brother of the apostle John, Saint James Major was in...
They and two others—one now in a museum in France, the other lost—were cut from the same altarpiece. It would have been an imposing work with triangular gables (see Reconstruction).
They and two others—one now in a museum in France, the other lost—were cut from the same altarpiece. It would have been an imposing work with triangular gables (see Reconstruction).
Giotto's explorations and innovations in art during the early 14th century developed, a full century later, into the Italian Renaissance. Besides making panel paintings, he executed many fresco cycles—the most famous at the Arena Chapel, Padua—and he also worked as an architect and sculptor. Transformed by...
They and two others—one now in a museum in France, the other lost—were cut from the same altarpiece. It would have been an imposing work with triangular gables (see Reconstruction).
Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh [away the sin of the world]. These words, inscribed in Latin on the scroll held by Saint John the Baptist, highlight the saint’s role as Christ’s forerunner, who announced his coming to the world. Standing against a gold background and enclosed...
