Free downloadable Renaissance Catholic paintings in the public domain.
About the Image: The two immaculately preserved panels depict with great attention to detail the events leading to the Incarnation of Christ. Together with a Risen Christ (today in the Abegg-Foundation in Riggisberg), they originally served as the top sections of a four-part altarpiece which Crivelli painted in 1482 for...
About the Image: "Jesus among the Doctors" by Jörg Breu the Elder, painted in 1502, is a remarkable representation of a significant moment in the New Testament. Let's delve into the artwork's narrative, symbolism, and style. Narrative: The painting is inspired by the biblical episode (Luke 2:41-52) where the...
About the Image: The image is a representation of Saint John of Capistrano, commonly referred to as John Capistrano. He lived during the 15th century and is often remembered for his passionate sermons, reforms, and efforts in defending Christianity. A few points to note about the artwork: 1. Halo: The...
About the Image: Saint John of Capistrano (1386-1456) was a Franciscan friar and preacher who lived during the late medieval period. He is best known for his fervent sermons and missionary activities and for his role in organizing and leading a crusade against the Ottoman Empire, which culminated in the...
About the Image: Girolamo da Carpi was one of the most gifted artists at the court of the Este family of Ferrara, an important artistic center during the Italian Renaissance. This intimate work was painted for the Estes and adorned the oratory chapel of their palace. In the painting, Saint...
About the Image: This is a beautifully detailed page in a Book of Hours, specifically the "Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis." These books, predominantly used during the late Middle Ages into the Renaissance, were Christian devotional books primarily for laypeople. They typically contained prayers, Psalms, and Gospel lessons to be recited...
About the Image: This is a beautifully detailed page in a Book of Hours, specifically the "Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis." These books, predominantly used during the late Middle Ages into the Renaissance, were Christian devotional books primarily for laypeople. They typically contained prayers, Psalms, and Gospel lessons to be recited...
About the Image: This is a beautifully detailed page in a Book of Hours, specifically the "Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis." These books, predominantly used during the late Middle Ages into the Renaissance, were Christian devotional books primarily for laypeople. They typically contained prayers, Psalms, and Gospel lessons to be recited...
About the Image: This is a beautifully detailed page from a Book of Hours, specifically the "Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis." These books, predominantly used during the late Middle Ages into the Renaissance, were Christian devotional books primarily for laypeople. They typically contained prayers, Psalms, and Gospel lessons to be recited...
About the Image: The Vivarini were a family of Venetian painters whose prolific workshop specialized in large multi-tiered altarpieces for churches throughout the Veneto region. This relatively small triptych was likely intended for private devotion. The kneeling nun, dressed as a member of the Dominican Order, probably represents the patron....
About the Image: Benvenuto Tisi, often referred to by his nickname "Garofalo," was an Italian Renaissance painter from the city of Ferrara. He was active during a transformative period in European art, and his works often blend the elegance and coloring typical of the Ferrarese school of painting with the...
About the Image: These panels once belonged to an impressive high altarpiece which stood in the Dominican Church of Frankfurt into the 17th century. Together with other paintings, these works decorated the double folding wings of an altarpiece structured around the shrine, with sculptures in the center. Unfortunately the shrine...
About the Image: This painting is one of Cranach’s best-loved works; some twenty treatments of the subject by him have survived. Christ’s blessing of the children is a typically Protestant subject, for it illustrates Luther’s view that the way to heaven is not through good works (to...
About the Image: Her hands raised heavenward in a gesture of deepest distress, the Virgin Mary has sunk to the ground. Her body is grouped with those of the disciples offering her support and the mourning woman behind her in such a way as to imitate the form of Christ’...
About the Image: The main panel of the winged altarpiece features the Crucifixion. At the centre of the crowded scene is the crucifix, clasped by Mary Magdalene, before it a group with the unconscious Virgin and St Veronica. The latter presents the sudarium to the onlookers kneeling in the right...
About the Image: In the Bible, there is a story about Jesus as a child, where he is seen debating with the doctors (Luke 2:41-51). This image depicts that scene, using perspective to create a visually stunning piece of art. The temple's four pillars are prominently displayed in the...
About the Image: This is a typical example of the two-sided panels carried in fifteenth-century religious processions. Such objects were regularly handled and exposed to the elements. On one side, the theologian Thomas Aquinas and the mystic Catherine of Siena, who holds the heart that Christ gave to her, flank...
Details: This precious volume was obviously highly prized by its owner, the French-born King of Navarre, who had his coat of arms painted on no less than twenty folios. Rather than directly commissioning this manuscript from a specific workshop, it seems that Charles the Noble acquired his book of hours...
Details: This work depicts Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Virgin Mary, and is likely a fragment from an altarpiece dedicated to the life of the Virgin. While Joachim was fasting in the wilderness, an angel appeared to tell him that he and Anne, who had previously been unable...
Details: This small, gold-ground panel—most likely a fragment of a larger altarpiece—layers several episodes from Christ's Crucifixion at Golgotha (in Hebrew, "the place of the skull"). These are rendered in poignant detail and include the soldier piercing Christ's side with a lance, the group of antagonists gambling to...
Details: This panel originally formed the right half of a diptych, a hinged two-paneled painting used for private worship. The missing left panel probably depicted the Virgin and Child. The entire composition showed the monk, with his prayer book open, kneeling in an interior before Mary and the infant Jesus....
Details: The Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph consecrated the baby Christ to God in the Temple of Jerusalem 40 days after his birth, in accordance with Jewish laws concerning purity and firstborn sons. Joseph brings a sacrifice of doves, the priest Simeon receives Christ on an altar, and the prophetess...
Details: The arrest of Jesus was a pivotal event in Christianity recorded in the canonical gospels. Jesus, a preacher whom Christians believe to be the Son of God, was arrested by the Temple guards of the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane. It occurred shortly after the Last Supper (during...
The dead Christ hangs from the Cross, haloed and crowned with thorns. Blood issues from the wounds in his hands, feet, and side, where Roman soldiers pierced him with a lance. To either side stand his mother, the Virgin Mary, and his favorite disciple, John the Evangelist, to whom he...
