 |
 |
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture ----- Original Message ----- From: "Christopher Crockett" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Saturday, April 23, 2005 3:34 PM Subject: Re: [M-R] Vierges noires medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture i have OCRed the short text in her _The Throne of Wisdom; wood sculptures of the madonna in Romanesque France_ (Princeton University Press 1972) wherein Ilene disposes of this "Black Virgins" nonsense and would be glad to send anyone who is interested the whole 2.5 pages in a .doc (36Kb) email attachment. here's an even shorter summary, without some details and the extensive critical apparatus: [p. 20] "Black Virgins" Romanesque Madonnas were not intended to be "Black Virgins" despite the tenacity with which that view is held. Many of these so-called Vierges noires do indeed have dark faces today (e.g. Madonnas at Avioth, Chastreix, Cusset, Dorres, Moulins, Marsat, etc.), and the general assumption is that they must have been conceived that way. Curious explanations have been advanced to account for the blackness. Most commonly, the poetry of the Songs of Songs has been adduced: "I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem....(Song of Sol. 1:5-6). It would be difficult to understand why the Christ Child should also have been blackened if this passage were of significant inspiration for the idea. Swarthy Byzantine icons have also been credited as a possible source for Black Virgins,39 along with vaguely envisioned oriental models, e.g. Isis figures brought by Syrian merchants, Crusaders or even St. Louis, and converted into Christian Madonnas. Vincent Sablon explained the black or "Moorish" color of the Virgin at Chartres by conflating several of these theories. He referred to the Virgin's origins in a country where exposure to the sun darkened the skin, to the color which could be imagined from Solomon's Song, and to Nicephoras' description of the paintings of the Virgin by St. Luke in which the color of Mary's skin was the "chestnut" color of ripened wheat. An ingenious theory was put forward by Rohault de Fleury. He thought that the darkness of the silver which was used to ornament Byzantine icons representing Mary, and which had blackened through oxidation, was misunderstood in the West as original. It was imitated there, introducing Black Virgins into Europe. The more sober view of Olivier is that the dark look was caused by a build-up of smoke and grime, or a natural darkening of the wood, then thought intentional and reproduced. He realized, however, that such blackness for images of the Virgin cannot be traced beyond the sixteenth century. No documentation known to me indicates an earlier occurrence of the phenomenon. Indeed the Black Virgins cited above are archaicizing, post-Romanesque works or are known to have been blackened long after the twelfth century. The Majesties at Avioth, Cusset and Moulins are sculptures of relative modernity as is the Madonna at Chastreix, about whom parishioners complained in the last century that their Virgin had been made a negress. Notre-Dame de Marsat (Fig. 101, no. 35) is known to have [p. 22] been blackened in 1830 and again recently.46 Notre-Dame de Montvianeix (Fig. 60, no. 3) was black until the cleaning of 1931 revealed the original, natural flesh tints beneath the dark paint.47 Notre-Dame de Bon Espoir (Fig. 155, no. 88) has had a similar but more complicated history. A cleaning in 1945 uncovered a fair-skinned face, but out of respect for tradition, it was again blackened. Now that tastes have changed, the face has been re-cleaned and is today seen as it was originally intended, in natural color. The reasons for these alterations have to do with religious customs of the communities in which the Majesties are honored and their analysis is obviously beyond the scope of the present study. The evidence we have indicates that such customs were not common to the Romanesque world which saw in the Madonna an equally complex but very different form of the Mother of God. as far as i'm concerned, Forsyth's opinion is good enough. even if she doesn't mention the Templars at all, not one time. best, c "What about the older ones [Indians] ?" "Well, we can't seem to cure them of the idea that our Everyday Life is only an Illusion, behind which is the Reality of Dreams" --Werner Herzog's "Fitzcarraldo" http://us.imdb.com/Title?0083946 ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html