Painting

Paintings are decorative entities that hang on walls.

Crafting
Paintings can be crafted with any color of wool. The color of wool used does not influence the picture chosen when the painting is placed.

Breaking
To remove a painting from a wall, it, break one of its supporting blocks, cover one square of it with a block, hit it with an arrow, egg, ender pearl, snowball, or fire charge, or subject it to an explosion. The painting will then drop as an item. Arrows that hit paintings will disappear.

Placement
Paintings can be placed on the sides of solid blocks. There are several different sizes of painting (see below), and when placed, a painting that fits the available wall space is randomly chosen.

The wall itself must have a solid block where the painting is placed, but the other blocks can be almost anything.

All paintings larger than 1×1 will extend upwards and to the right of where the player placed them. If a painting is greater than 2 blocks high, it will start one block below where the player places it, before extending upward. Likewise, if it's over 2 blocks wide, it will start one block to the left before extending to the right. Practically speaking, this means that to get a larger painting, the painting must be placed one block above and to the right of the corner of the wall space; it should not be placed directly in the corner.

In 1.12 (upcoming)
When placed, a painting will check for the largest amount of space it has. It then chooses a random painting of that size. Therefore, the player can add blocks around the painting to ensure it is the size wanted.

Properties
Being an entity, paintings can simultaneously exist in the same space as blocks such as water or torches. Specifically, they can share the space with any block whose collision box does not intersect its hitbox.

Players and mobs are able to walk through paintings, as long as the blocks supporting the painting allow it. Light propagates through paintings as well.

Paintings are non-flammable.

Canvases
There are 26 paintings in the game. These are mostly based on paintings by Kristoffer Zetterstrand, who also created the Minecraft versions. A random image from among these is chosen each time a painting is placed. In 1.12, it is a random painting of the maximum size that can be placed.

Pocket Edition
In Pocket Edition, there are four additional 2×2 tile paintings with no clear purpose or use. See Pocket Edition unused features for more information.

Data values
Paintings have entity data which define various properties of the entity. Their entity ID is.

Video
Note: This video is outdated as it is now easier to get the painting you want

Trivia

 * On 26 April 2011 Notch stated that the auto mapping code can be used to share custom paintings and books in the future.
 * In SMP, if a player is standing behind a painting, other players do not see their name.
 * Paintings are not actually attached to the wall. If you look closely, there is a gap between the painting and the wall.
 * The texture on the back of a painting is the same texture of wooden planks, darkened slightly.
 * On Console Edition, paintings and item frames share the same spawn limit.