Free downloadable Catholic paintings which are in the public domain
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...
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...
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...
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-...
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...
Description0:00/2:331×Details: Christ and St Mary Magdalen at the Tomb' reveals how imaginatively Rembrandt could interpret traditional religious subject-matter. The scriptural source for this scene is the Gospel of St John (20:11-18), who describes in some detail the burial and subsequent resurrection of...
Edit St Joseph and the Christ Child 17141730 by Giuseppe Chiari Public Domain Cathol 10:00/0:391×Details: Jesus and his mortal father, St. Joseph, are captured in a moment of connection. The Bible does not contain a scene like this, and it is rare in Christian art of...
Virgin and Child with Four Saints Cleveland Museum of Art0:00/0:281×Details: The Virgin and Child appear with Saints Catherine, John the Evangelist, Jodocus, and Mary Magdalene. Symbols of the Virgin’s purity and of Christ’s death and redemptive mission are included in the scene: the wall,...
Edit Risen Christ 19th Century by Unknown Public Domain Catholic Painting Raindropi0:00/0:111×Details: The altarpiece "Resurrection" painted by an unknown artist is a contemporary but rare example of altist painting in the classicist style in Estonia. The monument forms part of the whole church interior....
The Ascension 16th Century by Dosso Dossi Public Domain Bible Painting SD Cason Ca0:00/1:081×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,...
Leaf from an Antiphonary Coronation of the Virgin Cleveland Museum of Art0:00/ 0:291×Details: The unidentified illuminator of this leaf is named after his work on a painted triptych that once hung behind the altar of the Church of Santa Maria del Ponte in the small village of...
Pentecost Bartolomeo di Tommaso Mia0:00/0:391×Details: In this scene from the New Testament, the twelve apostles were gathered in a room after Christ's death and ascension into heaven. Suddenly there appeared on each of them tongues of fire. They were filled with the Holy Spirit,...
P5020:00/0:561×Details: This was once the main panel of a large altar piece consisting of many parts. It was painted by Mariotto di Nardoex in 1408 for the church of San Stefano in a rural district outside of Florence, Italy. In this scene the Virgin Mary is...
Study for The Assumption of the Virgin for San Augustin Seville Cleveland Museum of A0:00/0:331×Details: This painting is a sketch for a large altarpiece. The rough, flickering surface, the unusually sharp contrast of hot and cool hues, and the compression of space all characterize the artist’...
Study for the Assumption of the Virgin 1758 by Jean Baptiste Deshays Public Domain Cat0:00/0:481×Details: In this lively oil sketch, the Virgin Mary ascends into heaven from her tomb, carried by a swirl of angels. Jean-Baptiste Deshays made this work in preparation for a major...
Details: Didacus of Alcalá (Spanish: Diego de Alcalá), also known as Diego de San Nicolás, was a Spanish Franciscan lay brother who served as among the first group of missionaries to the newly conquered Canary Islands. He died at Alcalá de Henares on 12 November 1463 and is now honored...
Details The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The subject became popular in art from the 1490s on, but veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de Laval, the first bishop of New France, who...
Details: Joseph's Dream is a 1645 oil on canvas painting by Rembrandt. It was in the Königliche Schlöss in Berlin until 1830, when it moved to the city's Königliche Museum. It is now currently in the Gemaldegalerie, Berlin. It shows Saint Joseph receiving the second of...
Details: In the 1400s, the city of Tours became the seat of the French royal court. With a simultaneous flourishing of the arts in the city, Tours became the center of an important school of illuminators and painters. The work of Jean Poyet, an influential artist in this school, was...
