Public domain paintings of Catholic male saints.
This and another panel in the National Gallery of Art depicting Saint James Minor were part of a large—11 feet long—and impressive altarpiece made for the church of San Francesco al Prato in Perugia (see Reconstructions). Only the monks and other clergy would have seen these paintings because...
Saint James Minor is one of the more elusive of Jesus’s disciples. He is usually identified—as in the inscription running along the arch here—as the son of Alphaeus, and by his attribute, a fuller's club. James was said to have been the first bishop of...
Saint John the Evangelist, most beloved of Jesus’s disciples, holds his head in sadness. According to John’s Gospel, he was present at Christ’s crucifixion, and this panel, along with one depicting the Virgin Mary also in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, was originally part...
The special mixture of reality, fantasy, and virtuosity that is particular to early Netherlandish painting is nowhere more apparent than in this exquisite panel. In an episode from the popular legend, Saint George in black Gothic armor pins the dragon to the ground with his lance; at the left kneels...
This side wing and its companion were once part of an altarpiece commissioned in 1408 by the confraternity of the Virgin and Saint Stephen for the church of Santo Stefano in Pane, on the outskirts of Florence. The central panel, now in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, shows the Coronation...
During his devotions in the wilderness, Saint Bruno, the founder of the Carthusian order, a monastic community committed to solitary meditation, experienced a vision. Gazing intensely up at the sky, the saint tentatively reaches out to touch the mystical illusion of angels appearing in the sky. To the left, two...
Made just eight years before Rembrandt's death, this painting depicts Saint Bartholomew holding a knife in his right hand, a reference to the fact that he was skinned alive when martyred. One of Rembrandt's neighbors may have posed as the model for the saint. By showing...
Lurking in the shadows, grotesque monsters emerge to taunt Saint Anthony, attempting to impede his meditation. Grinning with satanic delight, the demons take human and raptor-like animal forms. Unperturbed, Saint Anthony continues to read his meditations. Divine light illuminates his figure, forming a bright halo around his head. He is...
Saint Sebastian is more conventionally depicted bound to a tree or pillar and pierced by arrows, or having his wounds tended to by Irene. Having recovered from the attempted execution by arrows, Roman Emperor Diocletian ordered that he be beaten to death and disposed of in the sewer. The denial...
This folding altarpiece depicts Saint Francis receiving the stigmata on the left and an angel crowning Saints Cecilia and Valerian with floral wreaths on the right. Delphine de Signe, an aristocrat living at the court of Naples in the early 1300s, had sworn a vow of virginity. Despite this, a...
This painting illustrates the Roman widow Irene nursing Saint Sebastian back to health after he was discovered to be a Christian and shot with arrows by Roman archers. Writhing in pain, Saint Sebastian looks heavenward as Saint Irene pulls arrows from his pierced body. Vicente López y Portaña dynamically composed...
Dosso Dossi depicts Saint George in the aftermath of his legendary battle with the dragon, wielding the creature's bloodied head and the lance broken during the fight. The victorious saint emerges from the darkness as a rainbow breaks through the storm clouds above. Dossi poignantly expressed his subject&...
