Menton

Black Madonna of Menton?

copy of Black Madonna of Montserrat?

in the Basilica Saint-Michel Archange, Place de l'Eglise, 06500 Menton, department Alpes-Maritimes, phone +33 4 92 10 50 00

photo courtesy of wikimedia

Is the statue above another shamefully whitened Black Madonna on whom close to nothing can be found on the internet or just a case of mistaken identity? In a blog post entitled “The Black Virgin of Menton”, written “by and for the people of Menton” it says: “The statue of the Black Madonna which dominates the altar was made in 1396 by Rinaldino called Puy-l'Evêque, a Gascon artist. Her face was colored, but she's not really black! On the other hand, there is an ex-voto attributed to Jacques Vento (17th century artist from Menton).”

Okay, so they acknowledge some kind of cognitive dissonance between the title Black Madonna of Menton, which they think belongs to a statue and the white figure on the altar. They also think that she has something to do with the really Black Madonna in the painting, which is described as an ex-voto, i.e. it was commissioned in thanksgiving for a miraculous healing of the plague. I think the ex-voto they are referring to is a rendition of the Black Madonna of Montserrat here above. Sorry for the terrible quality. The picture is on the website of the basilica St. Michael the Archangel who is often depicted with the distinctive mountain range of her home near Barcelona. The other painting is not as clearly a portrait of the Black Madonna of Montserrat, but since she is shown in front of a similarly shaped mountain, my guess is, we’re looking at two renditions of the same Black Madonna. May well be that the people of Menton would travel to the famous Black Madonna of Monteserrat 722 km to the South West. Ean Begg doesn’t list a Black Madonna in Menton.