Madonna dei Palafrenieri

In December 1605 a confraternity of papal grooms in Rome commissioned this altarpiece from Caravaggio, and he finished it fast, in under four months. It shows the Virgin and her mother, Saint Anne, guiding the Christ child as he crushes a serpent underfoot, an image of sin defeated. It hung on its altar in Saint Peter's for only two days before the authorities took it down. They were troubled by the naked child, by how much of the Virgin was shown, and by Saint Anne rendered as a plain, weathered old woman rather than a figure of grace. Cardinal Scipione Borghese quickly bought the rejected picture for his own collection, where it still hangs. The model for the Virgin was a woman from the streets Caravaggio knew.