Madonna and Child with a Serpent, 1605 Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610)

We create our paintings with museum quality and covering the highest academic standards. Once we get your order, it will be entirely hand-painted with oil on canvas. All the materials we use are the highest level, being totally artist graded painting materials and linen canvas.

We will add 1.6" (4 cm) additional blank canvas all over the painting for stretching.

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Painting reproduction is a high quality expensive product, which we cannot risk to damage by sending it being stretched.
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Once the painting Madonna and Child with a Serpent is ready and dry, it will be shipped to your delivery address. The canvas will be rolled-up in a secure postal tube.

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Caravaggio’s depiction of the Virgin, Child, and Saint Anne presents a distinctly human and grounded approach to sacred imagery. The scene is built around three figures grouped in a sparse, dimly lit interior, with Saint Anne looking on as the Madonna, clad in a russet gown and dark mantle, supports the small, unclothed Jesus. At their feet, a serpent coils menacingly, its form accentuated by a single, dramatic source of light. The near-empty background and the subtle halos suggest a quiet solemnity while allowing the monumental forms to command the viewer’s attention.

The color palette relies heavily on strong contrasts between rich reds, earthen browns, and deep shadows. Light areas stand out with a luminous clarity, a strategy that heightens the emotional charge of the moment. This confident use of chiaroscuro intensifies the figures’ sculptural volumes and underscores the notion of spiritual revelation. The darkness envelops the composition, creating an enigmatic ambiance that alludes to humankind’s eternal struggle with sin, embodied here by the serpent.

In technique, one observes Caravaggio’s direct painting method, free of elaborate preparatory drawings. His brushwork is sometimes broad, capturing the folds of cloth or the texture of skin with unvarnished realism. Conservation notes highlight how he marked the canvas with incisions, guiding the composition’s crucial outlines. This highly physical and improvisational process lends an immediacy to the figures that draws the viewer into their private world. The subtle modeling of the flesh—particularly in the child’s torso—reveals the artist’s unwavering commitment to life-like representation, which at times courted controversy for its perceived lack of decorum.

Compositionally, the group forms a triangular cluster near the lower half of the tall canvas, measuring 292 x 211 cm. The viewer’s gaze is guided by a shaft of light that both illuminates and unifies the figures, drawing attention to their hands, the serpent, and the interplay of glances. The subtle turn of Saint Anne’s head and her reticent posture introduce a quiet tension, suggesting that spiritual grace can exist within a narrative of everyday human interactions.

Historically, this work emerges at a time when Caravaggio was pushing the boundaries of religious painting with raw human realism. Commissioned for the altar of the Archconfraternity of the Papal Grooms and finished by April 1606, the painting was soon deemed unsuitable for its official site, likely due to its unembellished portrayal of the sacred. Purchased by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, it now resides in the Galleria Borghese. By fusing a humble portrayal of the holy figures with a potent symbolic gesture of the serpent’s defeat, Caravaggio introduced a frankness that challenged expectations of devout imagery while remaining firmly anchored in theological tradition.