MARIA skyblack resin (skyblackⓒnesher).
The handheld Icon of Mary.
Cast in Skyblack resin with marble powder.
Delivered along with bag and flyer.
8 cm | 3 in

This reduced version, like the original one, is cast in resin with marble powder. The color of the resin is “skyblack” composed by the artist. They are cast one by one from the artisan in Barcelona who since 1998 uninterruptedly reproduce them.

“I am black, yet I am beautiful.”
Black as the earth, mysterious as the East.
The definition Black Madonna already seems a contradiction in itself: the mother of Jesus can only be light, she has nothing to do with the blackness of darkness. However, the color black does not only symbolize darkness, but also the dark and muddy earth of fertility. The Black Madonna is the Mother Earth. How is it possible, then, that an atavistic symbol of the sacred feminine is venerated in churches? To find out, we must resort to historical documents. The oldest written testimony about a Black Virgin appears in a chronicle of the year 1255. According to the author of the document, the French King Louis the Saint took with him, on his return from a Crusade in Palestine, some sculptures of the Virgin Mary that he left in the region of Forez. The statues were “carved in dark wood and came from the East”. Since then the mysterious Dark Virgins had access to our altars.
Ex Oriente lux?
Once again ex Oriente lux? (from the East, light?) Today the Black Madonnas are present all over Europe, South America and the Philippines. At least two hundred of these statues dominate the altars of French churches, but their cradle is in the Auvergne region. Unfortunately, the researcher who intends to undertake a personal study on the Black Virgins is faced with a not indifferent problem. In many cases the local clergy wanted to hide the dark and unorthodox color of the statues. Outraged by the overly exotic features of the Madonnas, the clergy had them… painted white. (https://tinyurl.com/y6mlexzv)

At the end of 1999, after the exhibitions in Barcelona, Vic, Tarragona and Tortosa, the first MARIA exhibition in Italy took place at the Georgian University of Rome. It was also the return home of Guido Dettoni della Grazia after many years of absence. At the time of the exhibition in Rome, he presented and reproduced the original artwork -5.5 in high- and also its enlargement -32 in high-. MARIA “to be seen with the hands and to be touched with the eyes”. These were the only two possible approaches to the image.
During the installation at the Gregorian, the author meditated in the Peristyle of the University at the foot of a large sculpture of Jesus on the role of Mary as mediator between the man of God and the fact that once the goal of mediation was achieved, She would disappear. A question then came to his mind: how can I make this image disappear? The answer was immediate: by reducing the volume of MARIA so that She would disappear within the hand. Thus, a third approach to MARIA’s experience was born: seeing the image only with the hand, Mary disappears into the person’s hand and connects to his heart.
After this vision the decision was made and the reproduction of the reduced image of MARIA began. Since then, thousands of people have kept Her at hand reach in their daily lives praying with touch, beyond words and as a means of comfort and compassion.

www.maria.tk