An icebreaker
Hundreds of dark-skinned images of Mary, found across Europe and Latin America, are known as Black Madonnas. Scholars explain the color as candle smoke, deliberately dark materials, or older goddess imagery absorbed into Christian devotion; pilgrims still venerate them as living sources of grace.
In her study of Mary's cult, she noted the Church's own long-standing explanation drawing on the Song of Songs line “I am black, but comely,” alongside the more prosaic account of candle smoke darkening painted or varnished faces.
In his survey of the phenomenon, he documented hundreds of sites, largely in France, and argued that many trace to devotion shaped by the Crusades and later movements that projected an older divine femininity onto Mary.
In her published study, she argued that many images were only widely perceived and described as 'black' after the medieval period, as Counter-Reformation devotion recast older icons of majesty into objects of mystery.
In his published investigation, he reviewed the art-historical evidence for Poland's most famous Black Madonna, concluding the darkening resulted from centuries of candle soot and varnish degradation rather than any original design.