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

[Black Madonna of Altötting] / [Miniature painting]. S. M. Altenaeting. S.l.: s.n., s.a. [18th century]. [11.9 x 7.5 cm], [1] f. miniature painting on vellum, with gold pigments. Remnants of mounting on verso, well preserved, colors still fresh.
 
 
Eighteenth-century miniature painting 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 site in the region.
 
The miniature, which is of some technical quality, is notable for how the anonymous artist rendered the color of the skin and the features 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 exist hundreds of ‘Black Madonnas.’ The origin and meaning of their coloration is still very much a matter of debate, with some 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 format and style—with gold/marbled borders and gold lettering on a black or red background—were popular in southern German and Austria from the early 18th century. Both A. Spamer and H. Heres illustrate miniatures of this format in their works on the history of small devotional images in German-speaking lands (see below). 
 
 
*A. Spamer, Das kleine Andachtsbild vom XIV bis zum XX Jahrhundert, plates CXLIX and CLXVII (format analogs); Horst Heres, Das private Andachtsbild: Devotionale, Andenken, Amulett, plates 5, 6, 105, and 106 (format analogs); 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.