Free, downloadable public domain Catholic paintings of the Nativity.
La Natividad (1799) by José Campeche y Jordán is a significant work of art that exemplifies the mastery and artistic vision of the renowned Puerto Rican painter. In this masterpiece, Campeche y Jordán skillfully captures the essence of the nativity scene, a timeless subject in Christian art, with a unique...
About the Image: In the sixteenth century Antwerp, a major trade metropolis, became one of north-western Europe’s leading art centres. Among its many painters’ workshops were a number of studios that worked closely with one another. For want of a better name, the respective artists are collectively known as...
Details: The newborn Christ lies swaddled in a manger and reaches toward his mother, the Virgin Mary, while Joseph sits nearby. The resemblance of Christ's manger to a Gothic tomb poignantly signals his eventual sacrifice. Above, God the Father extends a banderole reading, "You are my son,...
Details: The Magi and the Shepherds are two separate groups of people mentioned in the Bible in relation to Jesus' birth. The Magi, also known as the Wise Men, were wealthy foreigners who followed a star to find Jesus[1][2]. The Shepherds were local shepherds who were visited...
Details: Adoration of the Magi by Fra Angelico is a tondo, or circular painting, dating from the mid-15th century[3]. It is believed to have been a collaboration between Fra Angelico and his colleague Filippo Lippi[1], with contributions from a number of hands[3]. It has sometimes been called...
Details: Sir Peter Paul Rubens was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens's highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of classical and Christian history. His unique...
In this painting, Nicolaes Maes almost exactly copied Albrecht Dürer's 1504 engraving of the Nativity. Maes simply widened the house to the left, provided new poses for the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus, and added the four shepherds that give the painting its new subject. The harmony of...
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 order....
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...
Standing on either side of this Nativity are two Hebrew prophets, whose writings—quoted on the scrolls they hold—are thought by Christians to foretell Jesus’s birth. The Gallery's Nativity joined other scenes from Jesus’s childhood (and other prophets) that unfolded along the front horizontal base...
Adoration of the Christ Child (Italian: Adorazione del Bambino), is a circa 1619–1621 oil on canvas painting of the Nativity by the Dutch Golden Age artist Gerard Honthorst in the collection of the Uffizi in Florence. The Adoration of the Child shows a moonlit scene with Mary laying the...
