Free downloadable Catholic paintings of the Virgin Mary
Donato de’ Bardi’s style brings together Netherlandish and French influences, focusing on refined detail and careful study of light. At the center of this painting, which is still in its original frame, Donato captures the sheltering affection between the infant Christ and Madonna. Gesturing to the goldfinch in his...
This work plays with our expectations of the flatness of the painted surface. Using a technique of gilded gesso, the artist gave Saint Nicholas’s miter and the crowns of the holy figures a raised surface. The Virgin’s robes and the intricate, angled throne also create a sense of...
These three panels are from an altarpiece painted for a Dominican church in the Marchigian town of Ascoli Piceno. It is possible that the child was originally shown reaching for a flying bird, his frequent attribute. The cracked marble dais is a recurrent feature of Crivelli's work. On...
Foppa was the founder of Renaissance painting in Milan, where he worked for the dukes. In addition to major fresco cycles and altarpieces, he also painted touching images of the Madonna and Child for private devotion. This one dates to about 1480 and shows them before a rose hedge—the...
Images of the Virgin Eleousa, the Virgin of Compassion, developed in the later Byzantine centuries and profoundly influenced the art of the Latin West. Here, the intimate poses of the heads and hands display the warm emotional attachment of the Virgin and Child. The fifteenth-century Latin inscription on the reverse...
This icon depicts the Dormition of the Mother of God (her "falling asleep" or death). The central figure is Christ, who stands over Mary's body holding a small, swaddled child. This child might represent Mary’s pure soul, which Christ is receiving to carry into heaven....
This scene depicting the Virgin Mary, her infant son Jesus Christ, and various saints and prophets also includes the kneeling figure of Louise de Bourbon (1495–1545), a member of the French royal family (Note the inscription LOYSE DE BOURBON on the hem of her dark habit). She was the...
This painting is an altarpiece, a devotional image used in a Christian church, and many of the details are religious symbols. The walled garden, for instance, refers to the garden in the Bible’s Song of Songs and is associated with the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. The...
Triptychs (hinged three-paneled works) such as this were often placed on or behind the altars of medieval churches and private chapels. The central panel of this triptych shows people mourning the death of Jesus. The city in the background is Bruges, where the artist worked. Saint John the Baptist and...
Lucas Cranach the Elder worked in a time of religious upheaval. Martin Luther (a close associate of Cranach) led the Protestant Reformation challenging the Catholic Church, arguing that man could have a direct relationship with God without the need for a priest to intermediate. Cranach adapted familiar Catholic imagery to...
Mary, the mother of Jesus, insists you look her in the eye. She has long inspired intense devotion. Christians believed that a relationship with her would bring them closer to her son, and worshippers identified with her role as a mother. Segna portrays them both as very human and approachable—...
The grief-stricken faces of the Virgin Mary and John the Evangelist once faced another panel referencing the Crucifixion. Their expressive features and weighty three dimensionality make their sorrow over Jesus’s death palpably human, while the golden space that they inhabit reinforces their sanctified status. Netherlandish devotional scenes sought to...
The artwork titled "Madonna and Child" is a wall painting from the 12th century, attributed to an anonymous artist from Faras, a region renowned for its Christian art in medieval Nubia (located in modern-day Sudan). It is badly damaged, but one could image the beauty and wonder that...
In this humanizing yet idealized depiction of the Virgin Mary embracing the baby Jesus, Sandro Botticelli conveyed the sacred beauty of maternal love. Mary, her expression soft and her skin luminous, nuzzles her son’s chubby cheek as he grasps the nape of her neck. An angel, smaller in scale,...
The Dormition is a major feast in Eastern Christianity, celebrating not just Mary's death but the promise of bodily resurrection for all believers. Coptic icons follow Byzantine iconographic conventions but often feature distinctive Egyptian stylistic elements and color palettes. Free DownloadThis image is in the public domainCoptic_icon_...
This painting is a 19th-century work by the French academic artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau, titled "The Virgin, the Infant Jesus and Saint John the Baptist" or "La Charité" (Charity). It's a classic example of academic art that blends religious subject matter with a highly polished,...
Émile Signol was a French artist who painted history paintings, portraits, and genre works. Although he lived during the Romantic period, he espoused an austere neoclassicism and was hostile to Romanticism. This neoclassic painting of the Crucifixion emphasizes dramatic realism and emotional intensity, departing from earlier, more stylized depictions. The...
"Madonna and Child Surrounded by Angels" presents a tender, ethereal scene where the Virgin, draped in a striking blue mantle, cradles the infant Christ, while playful cherubic figures populate both the foreground and the snow-covered landscape beyond.
This painting of the Madonna and Child displays the meticulous finish, rich colors, and intensely sweet piety characteristic of the Florentine Baroque artist Carlo Dolci.
In this depiction of the Annunciation, the angel's Gabriel wings resemble the feathers of a peacock.
This small altarpiece of the Virgin Mary and child Jesus flanked by saints, is designed for a household or private chapel. It is a triptych with three panels, making it easy to fold and transport.
This circular work of art, known as a tondo, shows the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph with the child Jesus, and Saint Elizabeth holding John the Baptist on the right.
This devotional plaque, of the Annunciation, is by Suzanne de Court, the only woman enamel painter to sign her work.
The Virgin Mary in this icon asks her son to forgive humanity's sins at the Last Judgement, flanked by four saints shown in intercessory prayer.
