Bible Artists

Ivan Aivazovsky

1817–1900

Armenian

Ivan Aivazovsky (1817–1900) was an Armenian painter of the Russian Empire who became one of the nineteenth century's most celebrated painters of the sea. Born in the Black Sea port of Feodosia, he made water the central subject of a remarkably prolific career. Aivazovsky also turned repeatedly to biblical themes. Stories involving the sea were particularl...

Antonello da Messina

c. 1430–1479

Italian

Antonello helped make the face of the suffering Christ an intimate object of devotional attention.

Federico Barocci

1535–1612

Italian

Federico Barocci was an Italian late Renaissance painter whose warm color, tender expressions, and carefully constructed compositions shaped Catholic religious art.

Jacopo Bassano

1510–1592

Italian

Jacopo Bassano was a Venetian Renaissance painter whose biblical narratives are distinguished by rustic settings, animals, and expressive treatments of light.

Biagio di Antonio

c. 1446–1516

Italian

Biagio di Antonio was a Renaissance artist whose religious work forms part of the history of Christian painting. Biagio di Antonio worked in Florence and in Romagna during the later fifteenth century. His career encompassed altarpieces, devotional panels, and collaborations with other painters. He is one of the artists whose role in a famous decorative ca...

William Blake

1757–1827

British

William Blake (1757–1827) was a British poet, engraver, painter, and visionary artist whose work joined words and images in an intensely personal form of religious expression. Biblical subjects occupied an important place throughout his career, but Blake approached Scripture differently from conventional illustrators. Some works depict identifiable biblic...

Carl Heinrich Bloch

1834–1890

Danish

Carl Heinrich Bloch (1834-1890) was a Danish painter and printmaker celebrated for his vivid representations of the life of Jesus. His religious paintings became widely reproduced and remain influential in Christian art.

Sandro Botticelli

1445–1510

Italian

Sandro Botticelli (about 1445–1510) was a Florentine painter whose graceful figures and expressive use of line made him one of the most distinctive artists of the Italian Renaissance. Although now widely known for mythological paintings such as Primavera and The Birth of Venus, religious subjects occupied a major place throughout his career. His workshop...

William-Adolphe Bouguereau

1825–1905

French

William-Adolphe Bouguereau was a French academic painter known for polished figure painting and idealized religious subjects.

Ford Madox Brown

1821–1893

British

Ford Madox Brown was a British painter associated with Pre-Raphaelite realism, known for carefully observed historical and biblical scenes.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

c. 1525–1569

Flemish

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525–1569) was a Flemish painter and draftsman whose landscapes and scenes of everyday life transformed sixteenth-century Netherlandish art. Biblical subjects form an important part of his relatively small surviving body of paintings. Bruegel frequently placed events from Scripture within expansive landscapes or crowded commun...

Edward Burne-Jones

1833–1898

British

Edward Burne-Jones (1833–1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the second generation of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. He originally went to Oxford intending to pursue a religious vocation but abandoned that plan to become an artist. Biblical and Christian subjects remained important throughout his career, especially in designs for church...