Free downloadable Catholic paintings which are in the public domain
In the crumbling remains of a Roman temple, a monk prays at the foot of an altar. Absorbed in his devotions, he is unaware of three young women sneaking inside to steal flowers from a makeshift shrine.
Surrounded by a diverse array of onlookers, the Byzantine emperor Heraclius kneels and prepares to raise the holy cross. Barefoot and clad in drab robes, Heraclius has abandoned his fine clothing in order to pass through the gate of Jerusalem with humility.
Wading carefully through the water of the River Jordan, Christ leans his upper body forward, and extends his arms for balance, his fingertips gently touching Saint John the Baptist's side. Christ’s outstretched arms may prefigure his position on the cross at his crucifixion.
The words Ave gratia plena Dominus tecum (Greetings most favored one! The Lord is with you) from Saint Luke’s Gospel (1:8) emerge from the archangel Gabriel’s mouth as he announces the conception of Christ to the Virgin Mary.
At the left, Saint Peter and other disciples of Christ pull their teeming nets of fish aboard a boat. After an unsuccessful night of fishing on the Sea of Tiberius, the tired and hungry disciples had seen a man standing on the shore and followed his advice to cast their nets over the boat's right…
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.
God the Father sits enthroned, holding the crucified Christ with the Holy Spirit between them, all three dominating the composition. Together they represent the Trinity, the central doctrine of the Christian faith, in which all three are united as one.
A cut-away wall reveals a small bedroom where an angel appears to Pope Sergius in his sleep. The angel tells Sergius that the bishop Saint Lambert has been assassinated and Sergius is to appoint a new bishop, Saint Hubert.
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.
St. Philip Neri was a Christian missionary and founder of the Congregation of the Oratory, a community of Catholic priests and lay brothers. Giovanni Domenico Ferretti (Giandomenico), also called Giandomenico d'Imola (15 June 1692 – 18 August 1768) was an Italian Rococo style painter from Florence.
Jerome (c. AD 347–420) studied Greek and Latin literature in Rome, but eventually pursued theology, perceiving his conduct as corrupt and sinful. Around AD 374, Jerome had a vision of the Last Judgment in which an angel called him to task for his transgressions.
Rembrandt portrays his 19-year-old son Titus as a Franciscan monk. The rules of the Order prescribe a life of poverty and humility, reflected in the sitter’s coarse cloak and air of quiet introspection.
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.
The Book of Judith is a deuterocanonical book, included in the Septuagint and the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian Old Testament of the Bible, but excluded from the Hebrew canon and assigned by Protestants to the apocrypha.
Christ the Redeemer is an icon discovered by accident in a dilapidated woodshed near Zvenigorod in 1919. With several other icons stored nearby, it was attributed as the work of the great Andrei Rublev, painted for one of Zvenigorod cathedrals in the 1420s.
An Ethiopian Orthodox painting on wood of the Virgin Mary nursing the infant Christ. The twelve Apostles are depicted on the opposing side panels. Dating places this work in the middle or second half of the 15th century.
The burial of Jesus refers to the burial of the body of Jesus after crucifixion, before the eve of the sabbath described in the New Testament. According to the canonical gospel accounts, he was placed in a tomb by a councillor of the Sanhedrin named Joseph of Arimathea.
In retaliation for Samson’s single-handed decimation of their army, the Philistines bribed his lover Delilah to discover the
Joseph tells his dreams to his parents and his brothers. Standing by a bed of his mother Rachel, Joseph tells his dreams to his father Jacob who is sitting in front of the bed, left some of his brothers talking and pointing among each other. In the right foreground a sleeping dog.
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.
This is the only known icon devoted to the genealogy of a monastic order. Its subject is the "House of Ewost' atéwos," one of two major monastic orders of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Born circa 1273, St. Ewost' atéwos founded a number of monasteries in northern Ethiopia.
This monumental panel probably once decorated a chapel. Both are from a large window in which the Crucifixion was in the center and the Saint Christopher at the right. The third panel, which would have been on the left, is lost.
