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Black Madonnas

LC control no.sh 85014640
LC classificationBT670.B55
Topical headingBlack Madonnas
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Variant(s)Black Virgins
Madonnas, Black
Virgins, Black
See alsoMary, Blessed Virgin, Saint--Art
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Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint--Devotion to
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Found inOrsini, Jacqueline, Mary, 2000: page xiv (Many black, or dark, images of Mary are the result of chemical changes caused by time and smoke from altar candles, encrusted soot, or other pollutants; they do not indicate a lost thread to paganism) page xv (Other dark Marys were authentic products of an artist's convictions coupled with time-honored venerations of dark or Black Madonnas)
Moser, Mary Beth. Honoring darkness, 2008: page xii (Black Madonnas, very dark-skinned images of Mary looked like none of the fair rendition with which I was familiar) page xvii ([A] certain percentage of Black Madonna images are intentionally dark)
All about Mary website, May 9, 2019: (In the early days of the 'comparative religions' discipline, authors casually equated the 'Black Virgins' venerated by Catholics with pagan goddess images of similar appearance, providing some with a polemic argument against the Catholic Church. More recently, some feminist writers have suggested the Black Madonna as indicating a perspective on Mary underemphasized in traditional Christian doctrine)
Gustafson, Fred, The black madonna of Einsieden, 2009: title page (black madonna) page 11 (several hundred Black Madonnas throughout Europe)
Oleszkiewicz-Peralba, The black madonna in Latin America and Europe, 2007: title page (Black madonna) page 9 (My book examines the phenomenon of the Black Madonna, a fluid syncretic blend of the Virgin Mary and ancient Mother Goddesses from Eurasian, Native American, and African cultures)
Birnbaum, Lucia Chiavola, Black madonnas, 1993: title page (Black madonnas) page 3 ([D]iffering in shades of dark, what all black madonnas have in common is location on or near archaeological evidence of the prechristian woman divinity and the popular perception that they are black)
Wikipedia, May 9, 2019: (The term Black Madonna or Black Virgin refers to statues or paintings of the Blessed Virgin Mary in which she, and often the infant Jesus, are depicted with black or dark skin ... these depictions are more accurate to historical Mary, since many of the works are eastern in origin and since Mary herself likely had dark skin)