The Virgin and Child with the Cat and the Snake

1654

Rembrandt has here rendered an intimate scene of the Virgin caressing her child while Joseph looks on through the window. The carefully measured application of surface tone creates a warm and gentle light effect in the depiction. A snake crawls out from under the Virgin’s skirt. This is no accidental motif: in Protestantism this was understood as presaging the Christ Child’s ultimate triumph over the devil.