Executed in 2003, Toxic Mary (Double) ranks among the most ambitious and conceptually sophisticated works from Banksy’s formative years. Monumental in scale and executed on corrugated cardboard, the composition transforms one of the artist’s most celebrated religious images into an imposing contemporary altarpiece. First exhibited at Turf War in London in 2003—the landmark exhibition that announced Banksy’s arrival as one of Britain’s most provocative contemporary artists—the work exemplifies his extraordinary ability to merge the visual language of Renaissance painting with the immediacy and subversive power of street art.

“As soon as I cut my first stencil I could feel the power there. I also like the political edge. All graffiti is low-level dissent, but stencils have an extra history. They’ve been used to start revolutions and to stop wars.”

Banksy appropriates one of the most enduring images in Western art: the Madonna and Child. For centuries, the Virgin nursing the infant Christ symbolized purity, compassion and spiritual nourishment. Here, however, the traditional image is radically inverted. Rather than offering life-giving milk, Mary feeds the Christ Child from a baby’s bottle emblazoned with a biohazard symbol. Innocence is nourished not by grace but by toxicity. The bottle becomes a powerful metaphor whose meaning deliberately remains unresolved. It may allude to environmental pollution, consumerism, pharmaceutical dependence, ideological indoctrination or the transmission of violence from one generation to the next. Like many of Banksy’s finest images, its enduring strength lies precisely in this ambiguity.

RAPHAEL
Madonna and Child, c. 1506-1507
Oil on yew wood, 27.9 x 22.4 cm
The National Gallery, London

The most well-known examples of The Madonna and Child were completed by Italian painter Raphael, who moved from his native Urbino to Florence at the turn of the 16^th century. Over the course of his career, the artist created more than 30 paintings of The Madonna and Child, for devotional panels and commercial sales, as well as gifts for friends, including one wedding present. His representations are considered among the most reverential and graceful of Mary and Jesus.

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This monumental version introduces an additional level of complexity by doubling the composition. Far more than a simple repetition, the mirrored Madonnas evoke the structure of a medieval diptych or devotional altarpiece, borrowing not only the iconography but also the formal language of Christian religious painting. The effect is almost liturgical. The act of poisoning is repeated as though it were a ritual, suggesting that humanity continuously passes its own fears, conflicts and destructive habits from one generation to the next. History is not presented as a sequence of isolated events but as an endless cycle.

The symbolism extends far beyond the central figures. Above each Madonna, traditional halos are replaced by military targeting reticles, transforming sacred icons into objects of surveillance and violence. Below, the silhouettes of fighter aircraft emerge almost imperceptibly from the dark shadows, as though warfare itself forms the foundation upon which the entire composition rests. Hovering above the central axis is a solitary star. At first glance it recalls the Star of Bethlehem, the universal symbol of hope and divine guidance. Yet positioned between two rifle sights, its meaning becomes profoundly ambiguous. It may equally evoke military insignia, command or conquest. Throughout the work, Banksy deliberately collapses the visual languages of religion and warfare, allowing the sacred and the martial to occupy the same symbolic space.

The choice of corrugated cardboard further reinforces this tension. Historically, images of the Madonna were painted on carefully prepared wooden panels enriched with gold leaf and intended for churches or private devotion. Banksy instead chooses one of the humblest and most disposable industrial materials imaginable. Associated with packaging, transport and global commerce, the cardboard becomes an essential part of the work’s meaning, replacing the precious materials of religious tradition with the everyday fabric of consumer society. The visible folds and seams subtly echo the hinged panels of medieval altarpieces while preserving the raw immediacy of the street.

Its provenance further enhances its significance. Acquired directly from the artist in 2003 and exhibited at Turf War, this work belongs to the pivotal moment when Banksy first brought his imagery into the gallery while retaining the uncompromising spirit of graffiti. Today, Turf War is widely regarded as one of the defining exhibitions of his career, and works exhibited there rank among the most historically important examples from his early period.

What makes Toxic Mary (Double) so compelling is that its complexity unfolds gradually. The viewer’s eye is first drawn to the orange feeding bottle, then to the Virgin herself, before discovering the targeting reticles, the solitary star and, finally, the ghost-like fighter aircraft beneath the figures. Much like a Renaissance altarpiece, the painting invites a slow and deliberate reading. Yet Banksy reverses the traditional spiritual journey. Rather than leading the viewer upward toward redemption, each newly discovered symbol draws us back toward conflict, fear and human violence. The work appears serene at first glance, only to reveal itself as a devastating meditation on a society that has allowed war, consumerism and toxicity to infiltrate even its most sacred symbols.

Rich in historical references yet unmistakably contemporary, Toxic Mary (Double) stands among the masterpieces of Banksy’s early career. It demonstrates not only his mastery of visual economy but also his extraordinary ability to appropriate the great traditions of Western art and transform them into urgent reflections on the moral contradictions of the modern world.