Individual worshippers appear in many altarpieces and other religious paintings, kneeling at the feet of a saint or the Virgin Mary. In early Italian paintings the worshippers may be the donors of the altarpiece and these are among the first true portraits of named individuals. Congregations of worshippers appear in larger and more ambitious altarpieces, but few depictions of church interiors show congregations at worship, which perhaps is a recognition of worship as a private activity.
The well-known seventeenth-century Dutch paintings of church interiors sometimes include individuals or small groups of worshippers, but the emphasis is on the powerful perspective of the building itself. Worshippers become more common in nineteenth-century paintings of everyday life, but are usually shown outside the church.
