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 statue of Notre-Dame du Pilier (Our Lady of the Pillar) in Chartres Cathedral is a 16th-century polychromed wooden copy of a 13th-century silver statue which it replaced. Until its controversial 2013 restoration it was a black Madonna. The statue was granted a canonical coronation by Pope Pius IX which is celebrated with an annual procession and in honour of which the Confrérie de Notre-Dame de Chartres was erected. This souvenir holy card was issued by the confraternity in 1865 and the text on the back describes its activities and conditions of membership.