Madonna della Vallicella

This was the commission that announced Rubens in Rome. In his late twenties, still building his name in Italy, he won the high altar of the Chiesa Nuova, the Oratorians' new church, around 1606. His first attempt was oil on canvas, and once it was in place the congregation could barely see it, since light glared off the surface right above the altar. Rather than argue, Rubens repainted the whole thing on slate, a dark stone that throws back far less reflection, and the problem went away. He kept the rejected canvas and shipped it home, and it hangs to this day in Antwerp. Set into the altar, his Madonna frames an older miracle-working image that the church already revered.