Free downloadable Catholic paintings which are in the public domain
Details: Gardeners and taxi cab drivers have a patron saint in St. Fiacre. Said to be the illegitimate son of a Scottish king, he was raised in County Kilkenny at a Kilfearagh monastery. He developed a local reputation for healing and herbal remedies. Finding notoriety unsettling, Fiacre went on a...
Details: "And when they were departed, behold, an angel appears to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young Child and His mother, and flee into Egypt." Matthew 2:13 The artist, Harry Siddons Mowbray, was an American artist who executed various painting commissions for J....
Details: Joan of Arc (French: Jeanne d'Arc [c. 1412 – 30 May 1431]) is considered a heroine of France for her role in the siege of Orléans and the coronation of Charles VII of France during the Hundred Years' War. She was captured, convicted as a heretic, and...
Details: The early notion of Mary Magdalene as a sinner and adulteress was reflected in Western medieval Christian art, where she was the most commonly depicted female figure after the Virgin Mary. She may be shown either as very extravagantly and fashionably dressed, unlike other female figures wearing contemporary styles...
Details: The Ascension of Jesus is the Christian teaching that Christ physically departed from Earth by rising into Heaven, in the presence of eleven of his apostles. According to the New Testament narrative, the Ascension occurred on the fortieth day counting from the resurrection. In the Christian tradition, reflected in...
Details: Catherine was one of the most important saints in the religious culture of the late Middle Ages and arguably considered the most important of the virgin martyrs, a group including Agnes of Rome, Margaret of Antioch, Barbara, Lucia of Syracuse, Valerie of Limoges and many others. Her power as...
Details: The Three Marys (also spelled Maries) are women mentioned in the canonical gospels' narratives of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, several of whom were, or have been considered by Christian tradition, to have been named Mary (the most common name for Jewish women of the period). The...
Details: Assumption, in Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic theology, the notion or (in Roman Catholicism) the doctrine that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was taken (assumed) into heaven, body and soul, following the end of her life on Earth. There is no mention of the Assumption in the New Testament,...
Details: Guillaume Vrelant, born in Utrecht, was known to be in Bruges from 1454 onward where he died around 1481. He probably went there to sidestep a 1427 law which banned the sale of Utrecht images. A painter very much in vogue, he founded the Illuminators’ Guild in Bruges under...
Details: The hermit monk turns to nature as a refuge from the temptations of the world. In the silence of his cave, he holds a rosary and meditates on the holy text. His altar is decorated with objects of devotion—the crucifix—stands as a symbol of salvation, the extinguished...
Details: Assumption, in Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic theology, the notion or (in Roman Catholicism) the doctrine that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was taken (assumed) into heaven, body and soul, following the end of her life on Earth. There is no mention of the Assumption in the New Testament,...
Details: In 1821 Kruseman travelled to Italy. According to this picture’s inscription, he painted it in Rome. It combines both Dutch and Italian painting traditions. The two older figures still reflect the realistic Dutch style, while the young people are idealized Italian peasant types. The small Marian altar in...
Details: The Coronation of the Virgin or Coronation of Mary is a subject in Christian art, especially popular in Italy in the 13th to 15th centuries, but continuing in popularity until the 18th century and beyond. Christ, sometimes accompanied by God the Father and the Holy Spirit in the form...
Details: This is an illustration of the eighth article of faith (I believe in the Holy Spirit) of the Apostles' Creed. Mary and the twelve apostles are sitting in a room. Tongues of fire burn above the heads of some of them. The Holy Spirit, in the form of...
Details: This is a half-length print of the Virgin Mary, on a cloud, with a halo of (oxidized) silver. This is likely a relief/woodcut. Woodcuts are probably the oldest method of printing – the application of ink to the saved image areas which are raised – the non-image areas being removed...
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: The Venetian painter Sebastiano Ricci traveled from capital to capital—Rome, Vienna, London—producing vast frescoes for princely patrons. Even in this small-scale work, his celebrated elegance, fluid brushwork, and brilliant coloring are on display. The subject here is biblical. A woman caught in adultery has been brought to...
0:00/1:001×Details: The presence of a group of female disciples of Jesus at the crucifixion of Jesus is found in all four Gospels of the New Testament. Differences in the parallel accounts have led to different interpretations of how many and which women were present. In some...
0:00/0:361×Details: Assumption, in Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic theology, the notion or (in Roman Catholicism) the doctrine that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was taken (assumed) into heaven, body and soul, following the end of her life on Earth. There is no mention of the Assumption...
0:00/0:461×Details: St. Ignatius of Loyola was born 1491 in Spain and died 1556 in Rome. He was canonized March 12, 1622 and his feast day is July 31. He was a Spanish theologian and mystic, one of the most influential figures in the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation...
0:00/1:041×Details: Apotheosis is a genre that exists in Christian art as in other art. The features of the apotheosis genre may be seen in subjects that emphasize Christ's divinity (Transfiguration, Ascension, Christ Pantocrator) and that depict holy persons "in glory"—that is,...
0:00/0:401×Details: Pope Clement IX, whose original name was Giulio Rospigliosi, was born Jan. of 1600 in Pistoia, Tuscany and died Dec. 9, 1669, in Rome). He was pope from 1667 to 1669. Clement IX served as papal ambassador to Spain from 1644 to 1653 and cardinal...
0:00/0:501×Details: The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. (The word 'assumption' derives from the Latin word assūmptiō meaning "taking up"). Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus as...
0:00/0:531×Details: Ludovica Albertoni was an Italian Roman Catholic noblewoman from the Renaissance period and a professed member of the Third Order of Saint Francis. The death of her husband prompted her to dedicate her life to the service of the poor in Rome and she was...
