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Antique Religious Paintings

About this collection

Antique religious painting is the depiction of sacred and biblical subjects, the central tradition of European art from the Flemish and Italian Baroque to the 19th century.

A painting of a saint was first a tool for prayer. The works here run from penitent figures and devotional images to biblical narratives, painted on canvas, on oak panel and on copper, many of them from the 17th and 18th centuries and many still in period frames. To see how one Gospel story was painted again and again, read our guide to Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well.

SoldHagar and Ishmael in the wilderness with the angel, circle of Januarius Zick, 18th century German school oil on canvas, unframed

German School, 18th century

Hagar and Ishmael, 1700sSold
The Virgin and Child at the left, the eldest king kneeling in yellow, a crowd of twelve behind, Flemish, 17th century

Flemish School, 17th century

Adoration of the Magi, 1600s
$7,900
Antique penitent Magdalene in a cave with an open book and a skull, oil in a moulded gilt frame

Dutch School, early 18th century

Penitent Magdalene, 1700s
$3,800
The Virgin rising with arms open, carried by five draped angels above a dark plain and a walled town, in a moulded gilt frame (after Poussin, 1881)

French School, 19th century

Assumption of the Virgin, 1881
$3,500

Guides · before you buy

Period Copies After the Old MastersA photograph reproduces an image.Read the guideMary Magdalene in Old Master PaintingSinner, saint and hermit, and for five centuries the woman every European painter wanted to paint.Read the guide
The young Saint John the Baptist seated with the lamb and the reed cross, French School oil on canvas

French School, 18th century

Young Saint John, 1700s
$3,600
A floral garland on a black ground with the Holy Family in an oval at the centre, Flemish, 17th century

Flemish School, late 17th century

Rest on the Flight, late 1600s
$6,900
Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well, 17th century oil on canvas, in an ebonised frame with painted decoration

French School, 17th century

Christ and the Samaritan, 1600s
$5,300
Antique 17th century oil on wood panel, Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well, in period gilt frame

Flemish School, 17th century

The Samaritan Woman, 1600s
$5,800
Eliezer offering the gold bracelet to Rebecca at the well, a dozen women with water jars before Roman architecture, oil on canvas after Nicolas Poussin

French School, circa 1800

Eliezer and Rebecca at the Well
$4,700
Ecce Homo after Correggio, Christ crowned with thorns in half length against an olive ground, oil on canvas in an antique ebonised frame

Italian School, 17th century

Ecce Homo, 1600s
$11,000
SoldAntique 17th century Flemish oil on copper, the penitent Mary Magdalene, in ripple moulded frame

Flemish School, 17th century

Penitent Magdalene, 1600sSold
Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well, French School oil on canvas, 18th century, sold unframed

French School, 18th century

The Samaritan Woman, 1700s
$4,830
Large antique 17th century Italian penitent Magdalene with a skull, oil on canvas in gilded frame

Italian School, 17th century

Penitent Mary Magdalene, 1600s
$12,000
A city burning on the right, Lot and his daughters in shadow on the left, Flemish, circa 1600

Flemish School, circa 1600

The Fire of Sodom, circa 1600
$8,700
The Belle Jardiniere after Raphael, the Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist, oil on canvas, 19th century, in a period gilt frame

European School, 19th century

Madonna after Raphael, 1800s
$3,800
Seventeenth century French oil of Saint John the Baptist as a child holding the lamb and the reed cross, in a carved oval giltwood frame

French School, 17th century

Saint John with the Lamb, 1600s
$6,300

GalerieClub Fine Art

1,100+

paintings sold since 2017

Poppy Fields, late 1800sSold Poppy Fields, late 1800s Hagar and Ishmael, 1700sSold Hagar and Ishmael, 1700s Penitent Magdalene, 1600sSold Penitent Magdalene, 1600s

Our promise

  • Every painting photographed front and back
  • The frame you see is the frame that ships
  • Free tracked UPS Express Saver to the US

New paintings, by email

A note when new paintings come in. Nothing else.

Elsewhere in the gallery

Antique religious paintings for sale at GalerieClub

Most of these paintings were made to be prayed before. Antique religious oil paintings hung in private rooms as often as in chapels, and Catholic households of the 17th and 18th centuries lived with a Madonna or a saint the way later homes lived with a family photograph. The Christian subjects in this collection run from the Baroque to the 19th century, with Old Testament stories beside them.

  • The Baroque made faith dramatic. A Baroque religious oil painting sets a single moment in strong light against deep shadow, so that a gesture or a face carries the whole story. Painters of the Italian Baroque and the Flemish Baroque worked in that language, and an old master religious painting keeps it even when its painter's name is lost.

  • Wells, deserts and burning cities. The Old Testament gave painters stories that happen outdoors, a servant meeting a bride at a spring, a mother and child sent into the wilderness, a family fleeing a city in flames, and the Gospels added scenes at the well and the arrival of the Magi. An antique biblical scene painting usually shows the moment just before the story turns.

  • Saints are recognised by what they carry. Saint John the Baptist has his lamb, the Magdalene her jar of ointment, the Virgin her blue mantle, and painters kept these signs so that anyone could name the figure at a glance. An antique saint oil painting is read through them, and the penitent figure of the Mary Magdalene has its own collection.

  • Copying was how painting was taught. Students and professional copyists reproduced the great altarpieces and gallery pictures for patrons who could never own the originals, and a period copy after an old master is a painting of its own century, with its own hand. These works are described as after the master, never as the master, as our guide to reading an attribution explains.

  • Before canvas took over, Flemish painters worked on oak. A panel keeps its joins and battens on the back, and those details help to date it when the style cannot. Some small devotional pictures were painted on copper, whose smooth surface holds very fine detail, and many religious works still hang in period frames.