Miniature painting on vellum of the ‘Black Madonna’ of Altötting.

[Black Madonna of Altötting] / [Miniature painting]. S. Maria Altenöting. S.l.: s.n., s.a. [18th century]. [10.5 x 6.6 cm], [1] f. miniature painting on vellum, with gold and silver pigments. Remnants of mounting on verso, well preserved, colors still fresh.
 
 
Small 18th-century miniature painting—of some technical quality—on vellum depicting the Black Madonna of Altötting, a Gothic-style wood statue produced in the Upper Rhine region around 1330 and from the late 15th century the focus of popular pilgrimage in the region. 
 
Here the Black Madonna stands in a radiant mandorla atop a rose in a bouquet of various flowers. The bright colors are further enhanced by highlights in gold and silver pigments. 
 
The miniature is notable for how the (anonymous) artist rendered the color of the skin of the Virgin and Child. Printed and manuscript images of the Black Virgin of Altötting were offered to pilgrims in huge numbers, but relatively few emphasized the Madonna’s blackness, with most omitting that quality entirely. Those that did stress her blackness sometimes did so with reference to Song of Solomon 1:4 (Nigra sum, sed formosa, filiae Jerusalem, sicut tabernacula Cedar, sicut pelles Salomonis [“I am black but beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Cedar, as the curtains of Solomon”]).
 
Today there still exist hundreds of ‘Black Madonnas’ statues and panel painting icons. The origin and meaning of their coloration are still very much a matter of debate, with some works having simply darkened over time and others clearly having been darkened on purpose for some cultural, scriptural or symbolic reason (see bibliography below). 
 
Finely painted devotional miniatures in this style were popular in southern German and Austria from the early 18th century. 
 
 
*A. Spamer, Das kleine Andachtsbild vom XIV bis zum XX Jahrhundert; Horst Heres, Das private Andachtsbild: Devotionale, Andenken, Amulett; B. Romankiewicz, Die schwarze Madonna: Hintergründe einer Symbolgestalt; G. Fazio, La Madonna di Tindari e le vergini nere medievali; R. Bermann, Réalité et mystères des Vierges noires; A. Madroñero de la Cal, Cultura y tradición de las vírgenes negras: Enigmas, imágenes sagradas y devoción popular; Marie Durand-Lefébvre, Étude sur l’origine des Vierges Noires.