STEPHAN WOLOHOJIAN: I always remind people that this painting could be held. It's smaller than a sheet of notebook paper. It was for private devotion.

Hello. I’m Stephan Wolohojian. I’m Curator in Charge of European Paintings.

NARRATOR: This powerful image shows Mary, the mother of Jesus...

STEPHAN WOLOHOJIAN: Who looks out knowing very much what's ahead for her son, who tugs at this refined veil, very much a premonition, perhaps, of the shroud, of the burial cloth that would be his end.

DR. SHANNEN DEE WILLIAMS: I’m always fascinated by depictions of the Madonna and Child.

My name is Dr. Shannen Dee Williams, I am an associate professor of history at the University of Dayton.

STEPHAN WOLOHOJIAN: So, this moment of beginning is already allowing the beholder to think about the end, the very nature of her sorrow and her life, and the wisdom that comes with motherhood.

DR. SHANNEN DEE WILLIAMS: [Mary]speaks to a universal experience.

I identify as a Black Catholic Woman who is also a historian of Black Catholic Women.

NARRATOR: In this painting, Mary’s skin has a green cast. But that doesn’t reflect its original appearance. Over time, the flesh tones have been lost, so that a green underlayer called Terra Verde dominates.

DR. SHANNEN DEE WILLIAMS: I grew up in a predominantly white southern suburban parish. So much of the Catholic iconography that I encountered depicted the holy family as Europeans, which is not historically accurate.

NARRATOR: Exploring these galleries further, you’ll notice that other images of the Virgin present her with features that evoke a European ideal, rather than reflecting her origins in the Holy Land.

DR. SHANNEN DEE WILLIAMS: So for me, one question that I always had to ask myself is, well, if this iconography is showcasing what is divine, what does it mean when that divinity is only rooted in whiteness, in Europeanness? If this Europeanness comes to signify holiness and purity then what does African and later Blackness come to signify?

NARRATOR: Still, according to Dr. Williams, Black Catholics have found ways to see themselves within a visual tradition that has often excluded them.

DR. SHANNEN DEE WILLIAMS: Mary is the mother of the church, but she’s also a suffering mother. Regardless of how she is depicted, and what skin color or whatnot, there are these universal themes that speak to so many people, that speak across cultures.