Black Glass Madonna

This depiction of the Virgin and Child was made in the Innsbruck Court Glasshouse or Innsbrucker Hofglashütte of Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria by Venetian glass artisans. The composition is likely based on the statue of Our Lady of Loreto from the cathedral in Loreto, Italy of a Black Madonna and Child. Our Lady of Loreto refers to the Holy House (or Santa Casa) where the Virgin Mary was born. According to tradition, the house was transported by angels from Nazareth to Loreto. When locals went inside the house they found a beautiful dark wooden statue of the Virgin and Child. They thought the dark or black skin of the mother and son signified the carving was old and made by St. Luke, one of the authors of the gospels about the life of Jesus. 

Archduke Ferdinand II, a member of the House of Habsburg, established the glasshouse in Innsbruck, Austria near his castle Schloss Ambras. His love of Venetian glass from the island of Murano led him to secure permission from the Venetian government to temporarily employ glass artisans from the city to make objects exclusively for him and members of his court. These skilled glassworkers employed a technique known as lampwork where they used a torch to melt and manipulate glass rods and tubes—the technique used to achieve some of the fine details on this artwork. Ferdinand funded Loreto chapels throughout Austria to help promote Catholicism as part of his support for the Counter Reformation. 

Isabella visited Schloss Ambras as a tourist in August of 1886, however, she likely did not know of the Black Madonna’s origin when she purchased it in Venice from the antiquarian and furniture maker Michelangelo Guggenheim in 1897. This artwork pairs two of Isabella’s collecting interests: depictions of the Virgin and Child and Murano glass.