Madonna and Child with Saint Anne

Caravaggio painted Madonna and Child with Saint Anne around 1605, commissioned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese for an altarpiece in Saint Peter's Basilica but quickly rejected by the church authorities and removed. The painting depicts the Virgin and Child crushing the serpent — the Madonna trampling the serpent of original sin with the Christ child's assistance — while Saint Anne watches from behind. Caravaggio's Virgin is a recognizable Roman woman rather than a devotional type, and the Christ child a real naked infant, unideal in the manner of all his sacred figures. The church's rejection of the altarpiece as too naturalistic allowed Borghese to acquire it for his private collection, where it remains to this day.

The three-figure composition creates a downward-flowing diagonal from Saint Anne to the Virgin to the Child, with Caravaggio's powerful chiaroscuro modeling the figures in sharp relief against the almost black background.