The renowned Caravaggio, here at the Borghese Gallery in Rome, is everywhere here. After all, the first owner of the villa, the nephew cardinal Scipione Borghese, was a great admirer of the master's works, as well as an art expert and the first true sponsor of Bernini, for example (read here to get an idea). As a local tour guide, it is always a great pleasure to lead tours here at the Borghese Gallery because you can get in intimate contact with a truly exciting Caravaggio work, exhibited in the same room as the Sick Bacchus. I am talking about the so-called Madonna dei Palafrenieri. Let's discover it together.

Commissioned by the Brotherhood of Saint Anne in the very early years of the XVII century, Caravaggio was asked to place Saint Anne, the mother of the Virgin, in the foreground. Here we see, set in a completely dark context where a light, in the top left, illuminates only a portion of the wall, the Virgin with Jesus in front of her, intent on trampling a serpent. Saint Anne, who should have been the true protagonist of the work given the commission, is there, almost in a corner, in a detached silence and attitude, almost in contemplation. This already quite displeased the brotherhood, but there is much more. First of all, we know for certain that the female model Caravaggio used to represent his version of the Virgin Mary was named Lena, a well-known girl in Rome. The reason? She was simply one of the most appreciated and famous courtesans, so much so that she had famous lovers like the nephew of the pope Sixtus V. In short, a prostitute elevated to represent the Virgin Mary. Furthermore, the attitude of the Madonna, with her almost bursting chest, with her breast seemingly constrained by the dress she wears, almost caused a scandal for many. As usual, Caravaggio inserted fundamental biblical characters in a completely realistic environment, in a realistic attitude and dress, using models that everyone, even the last of peasants completely detached from knowledge of art history, could understand and recognize. This is part of that process of humanization, in full agreement with the dictates of the Counter-Reformation (disregarding those who say that Caravaggio always did things his own way), which makes this art master truly unique. But it doesn't end there, as now our focus can shift to the serpent that the Virgin crushes, with the help of Jesus. It almost seems like a game for them, especially for the child. Obviously, all of this would represent the defeat of Evil, personified by the little serpent. However, many studies suggest that this reptile could be a cervone, a very common snake in the Lazio countryside that also had a reputation for biting the cows'udders. Imagine, for a moment, how many mothers in the Seventeenth century could have been worried about the cervone, a common snake that could harm their children. Try to think that the two women and the child are not Saint Anne, the Virgin, and Jesus, but a simple family composed of a mother, grandmother, and child. Here, too, Caravaggio played between sacredness and reality, between invention and a strict and detailed imitation of reality, not only visual. 

This painting, unsurprisingly ending up in the art-hungry hands of Scipione Borghese, fully reflects Caravaggio's style. An all-around artist who, in a sense, worked for the people, making biblical episodes easy to read. Despite his bad character, which certainly did not help Caravaggio, we can easily say how much this painter changed art, not only of his time. It is always a pleasure to contemplate such a work, especially if you are here at the Borghese Gallery in Rome. Where, as mentioned before, Caravaggio is at home.