Free downloadable Renaissance Catholic paintings in the public domain.
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...
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,...
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...
Clovis II was a king of the Franks who ruled from 634 to 657 AD. He was a member of the Merovingian dynasty and the son of King Dagobert I. Like his father, Clovis II was a Catholic monarch who supported the Church and its institutions. During his reign, he...
Dagobert I ruled the Frankish kingdom from 629 to 634 AD, and during his reign, he actively supported the Catholic Church. He founded several monasteries and churches and is said to have been a generous patron of the clergy. Dagobert I also played a role in the spread of Christianity...
Joos van Gent, also known as Justus van Gent, was an Early Netherlandish painter who created a painting of Albertus Magnus. Albertus Magnus was a theologian, scholar, and philosopher who lived in the 13th century and made significant contributions to philosophy, theology, and natural sciences. 🙏🏽This image is in the...
The fresco of Saint Albertus Magnus, a theologian and scientist known for his contributions to philosophy, theology, and natural sciences, was painted by Tommaso da Modena in 1352. The fresco can be found in the Church of San Nicolò in Treviso, Italy. 🙏🏽This image is in the public domain. Free...
In this large devotional panel, the condemned Christ stumbles as he drags the Cross through the city of Jerusalem to the site of his Crucifixion. His mother and disciples—passing through the city gate at left—watch sadly and console one another. Christ and his followers are taunted by crowds...
Details: The crucified Christ is both the most popular and powerful image in the Catholic Church. It sits upon every altar where the Mass is said[1] because the Catholic Church requires that a crucifix be visible during the celebration of Mass. This reminds us of the sacrifice of Jesus...
Details: This painting shows Christ and his twelve disciples seated at a round table for the Last Supper. Christ raises his hand to consecrate the items before them—a chalice of wine and a loaf of bread, partially sliced to resemble the Eucharistic wafers of the Mass. Biblical accounts make...
Details: This panel was painted for a multipaneled altarpiece believed to be from Szászrégen in Transylvania, in present-day Romania. The piece was painted by the same artist who created the nearby paintings Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego, Seven Fat and Seven Lean Cows, and Two Men and Stocks. Each of the...
Details: El Greco's son, Jorge Manuel, who was known to work in the style of his father, probably painted this canvas. A reduced version of El Greco's original painting for the Cathedral of Toledo, it shows the dramatic moment before the Crucifixion when Christ's...
Details: This small panel was once part of an altarpiece depicting the life of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, along with a Nativity scene now in the Rijksmuseum and a depiction of the Annunciation, now in the Glasgow Art Gallery. Forty days after the birth of a male...
Details: On his way to Galilee, Jesus rests on a well outside the Samaritan city of Sychar, seen in the background. He asks for a drink from the woman on the right, who is surprised by this request, as Samaritans and Jews did not associate. When Christ is able to...
Details: In the Christian tradition, Pentecost is the celebration of the person of the Holy Spirit coming upon the Apostles, Mary, and the first followers of Jesus[1]. It is also known as the birthday of the Catholic Church[2] and celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the...
Details: Domenico Capriolo's Assumption of the Virgin is a painting located in the vestibule of the Annunciation chapel or Malchiostro in Treviso Cathedral[1]. It was commissioned in 1520[2] and is attributed to Domenico Capriolo[3][4][5]. The painting depicts the Virgin Mary being assumed into...
