Black Madonnas in Italy

A Black Madonna

Rome [ENA] A Black Madonna is an iconographic representation (painting or sculpture), typical of Christian iconography, of the Virgin Mary, possibly accompanied by the Child Jesus, whose face has a dark color, if not really black. Today the Black Madonnas are present throughout Europe. At least two hundred of these statues dominate the altars in France a country spanning Western Europe and overseas regions and territories.

Unfortunately, the researcher who intends to undertake a personal study on the Black Virgins, is faced with a considerable problem. In many cases the local clergy wanted to hide the dark and unorthodox color of the statues. Scandalized by the too exotic features of the Madonnas, the ecclesiastics had them painted white. In other cases, while leaving the original dark color, parish priests and sacristans try to convince the inexperienced visitor that the black is due exclusively to the perennial smoke of the candles and not to the quality of the wood chosen by the sculptor or to a color desired by the artist.

There’s a recurring presence of black Madonnas in Italy with numerous black Madonna sanctuaries and pilgrimage sites located especially in the Southern regions. Nostalgia for the unforgettable homeland of one’s ancestors associated with an inflexible devotion to Catholicism may be regarded as two of the most evident and plausible reasons for the surprising interest in Black Madonnas showed in the USA by several American Italian scholars, artists, and writers, through their critical inquiries, creative projects, and fictional as well as non fictional narratives. In the Italian peninsula, the archaic cults of the African Goddess Isis, of the black Goddess Artemis of Ephesus, of Demeter, of Cybele (the Great Mother of the Gods), of Hera,

Isis

of the Goddess Mefiti (an Italic divinity who dispelled evil spirits), and of the indigenous Vitulia (often assimilated to Hera) somehow all merged with the adoration of the black Madonna.The Black Madonna has traditionally been worshipped by those who were ‘other’ and not of the dominant culture. The term Black Madonna or Black Virgin tends to refer to statues or paintings in Western Christendom of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus, where both figures are depicted as black. The Black Madonna can be found both in Catholic and Orthodox countries.

The paintings are usually icons which are Byzantine in origin or style, some made in 13th- or 14th-century Italy (at the time of Yuan and Ming dynasties in China) , others are older and from the Middle East, Caucasus or Africa, mainly Egypt and Ethiopia. Statues are often made of wood but occasionally made of stone, painted and up to 75 cm (30 in) tall. They fall into two main groups: free-standing upright figures or seated figures on a throne. There are about 400–500 Black Madonnas in Europe, depending on how they are classified. Some are in museums, but most are in churches or shrines and are venerated by believers. Some are associated with miracles and attract substantial numbers of pilgrims.

Black Madonnas come in different forms, and the speculations behind the reason for the dark hue of each individual icon or statue vary greatly and are not without controversy. Though some Madonnas were originally black or brown when they were made, others have simply turned darker due to factors like aging or candle smoke. In Europe and Italy the mutation of elements between different religions or the convergence of ideological elements, in many cases has produced the combination of Christian cults with ancient pagan cults.

In many ways, even the spread of the veneration of the "Black Virgin" can be traced back to this operation. The cult of the Madonna was superimposed on that of the pagan Mothers, and in it also that of Isis, the "Mother" of the ancient world, lives again. The hypothesis of some scholars is that precisely from the Great Mother, the Goddess Earth, anthropomorphized in Mary, the mother of God, would probably derive the famous "Black Virgins", the dark-faced Madonnas venerated in many sanctuaries in Italy. The presence of the cult of the Black Virgins would therefore distinguish the places particularly linked to the Great Mother. In Italy there are at least 45 places dedicated to the "Black Virgin".