In art historical terms, a black Madonna is a painting or sculpture depicting the Virgin with dark or black skin, created in Europe in the late medieval period, or sometimes an older image whose documented popular cult dates from that time. Some are made of dark or black materials such as ebony, others are said to have become blackened from the soot of candles, although this explanation and the significance of the Madonna’s skin colour is contested. There are several hundred black Madonnas in Europe. The topic of black Madonnas has attracted a considerable literature in recent decades approaching the subject from the perspective of various academic disciplines including anthropology, psychology, art history, feminism, and Black history.

The Cathedral of Notre Dame de Chartres is - or was - the home of two famous black Madonnas: Notre Dame Sous Terre (Our Lady Underground), which was destroyed after the French Revolution and replaced by a new statue in 1857 and Notre Dame du Pilier (Our Lady of the Pillar), which lost its iconic black patina after a controversial restoration in 2013. This holy card was published in the late 19th century for sale to pilgrims as a souvenir of the Cathedral. It depicts both Madonnas, the reliquary chest containing a relic of the Virgin Mary's tunic given to the Cathedral in 876 by Charles the Bald (823-877), and a view of the Cathedral.