Black Madonnas: Making Sense of Unusual Artifacts (15th-21th centuries)

The question of the so-called Black Madonnas is one that has generated at least as much para-historical literature as scientific work: there are countless books, articles and websites that present these objects as Celtic or Indo-European idols, Christianised representations of pagan mother-goddesses, or even as a reminiscence of the African origins of humanity. For their part, historians and art historians have frequently favoured a positivist approach, focusing exclusively on the origin of and reasons for the dark colour of these statues and icons. This involves considering Black Madonnas as a distinct and stable category, even though this category only emerged in the 19th century when the term “Black Madonna” was coined. Therefore, it is necessary to reverse the terms of the analysis and examine the processes that led to the creation of this category. Were the Madonnas we now call “black” perceived as such by the faithful of the late Middle Ages and the early modern era? When applied to these artifacts, did the term “black” have the same meaning then as it does today? In other words, was it associated with race and ethnic origin? The project therefore aims to investigate the history of Black Madonnas, focusing on the interpretations these objects have inspired. This investigation has to be conducted over a long period of time, from the 15th to the 21st century, so as to fully reconstruct the history of the perception of the Black Madonnas and the issues involved. As research has focused almost exclusively on the Romanesque statues of southern France, the project intends to broaden the analysis by also considering the “Black Madonnas” of Italy and Spain.

The analysis will be conducted using two sets of sources. The first set consists of texts that mention or comment on the dark colour of the images in question, such as pilgrimage booklets, travelogues, theological treatises and sermons. This corpus also includes scholarly works devoted to Black Madonnas from the 18th century to the present day. The second set is iconographic. The Black Madonnas in our corpus are almost always well-known images of worship, which attracted pilgrims and were therefore frequently reproduced in the form of copies, devotional prints and painted ex-votos.

Firstly, the analysis of the corpus of sources will aim to clarify questions of terminology and chronology. The objective is to compile a list of all the terms employed to describe the colouring of the “black” Madonnas and to reconstruct their meanings. It will also be necessary to establish a general chronology of the phenomenon in order to understand when the colour of these images began to be taken into account and commented on. Once these elements have been acquired, it will be possible to reconstruct the entire history of the Black Madonnas, by identifying the different interpretations aroused by these objects and the issues underlying them. Two elements are central to this field of study. The first is the racialisation of Black Madonnas, i.e. the establishment of a link between the dark colour of these images and ethnic origin, which began in the mid-18th century. The second is the emergence and growth, during the 19th and 20th centuries, of the theory that these objects are of pre-Christian origin.

By re-historicising the question of the Black Madonnas and reconstructing the history of their perception, we hope to make a series of contributions to religious and cultural history. In concrete terms, the project will enrich the following areas of study: the history of the cult of images; the history of colours, their symbolism and perception; the image of non-European populations in Western art and thought; the rise of racial theories in modern Europe; the emergence of comparative study of religion in the 19th century; the way in which medieval art was viewed in modern Europe; the re-appropriation of the notion of the “Black Madonna” by contemporary currents of thought, such as black theology.