In the context of Madonna and Child with St. Anne (Dei Palafrenieri), explain the Depiction of the Iconography.
While not his most successful arrangement, it is an atypical representation of the Virgin Mary for its time and must have been shocking to some contemporary viewers. The depiction of the Virgin Mary, with the aid of her son, whom she holds, tramples and crushes on a serpent, the emblem of evil or original sin. Serpents symbolized heresy which signifies not believing in God. Believing in God was seen as the truth if a person believed in any other representation of a god figure instead of Jesus, it was seen as sinful. Mary and Jesus are crushing the serpent together with their feet and looking down upon the serpent. The snake is coiling up due to rejecting the presence of all three figures. Both Mary and Jesus are barefoot, and Jesus is a fully naked uncircumcised child.
evil original sin Virgin Mary serpent