Mary with the Christ Child has long been an iconic Christmas image for cultures and peoples around the world.
Starting more than 60 years ago, the U.S. Postal Service began annually issuing Christmas stamps featuring various classic artistic portrayals of the image.
This year, the USPS selected as the image for this stamp a painting that has been in the collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields in Indianapolis since 1938.
The “Madonna and Child” was created in the workshop of the Italian artist Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato in the 17th century.
Belinda Tate, the Melvin and Bren Simon director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, said she and the staff were “deeply honored” by having one of its paintings chosen for a Christmas stamp this year.
“This selection brings a beloved piece from our collection to a broad audience, allowing us to celebrate its beauty, historical significance and the spirit of the season,” Tate added.
A broad audience indeed. The USPS has produced 210 million stamps featuring this painting.
This is the first time that a work from the Indianapolis Museum of Art has been featured on a USPS Christmas stamp.
In seeking possible images for one of its 2024 Christmas stamps, the USPS requested in February 2023 a high-resolution digital image of the museum’s “Madonna and Child.”
The process the postal service uses to select images for its holiday stamps is confidential, and leaders at the museum didn’t know that its painting had been selected until the postal service’s public announcement regarding the stamps in August.
But aware that the USPS was interested in one of its paintings led the museum earlier this year to conduct conservation work on the painting, which has not been publicly displayed since 1987. The museum now will have it on display until Jan. 31.
Varnish on the painting and materials used in a repair made decades ago had darkened over time.
Roxy Sperber, Clowes conservator of paintings at the museum, described how the varnish “was masking the quality of the painting technique and the beautiful vibrant colors that Sassoferrato used.”
“These colors, particularly the ultramarine blue, were incredibly expensive, and the artist would have spent a lot of money making sure he and his workshop used the most vibrant, luxurious colors for this painting,” Sperber said. “It was only during the conservation treatment that we were able to identify this pigment, offering greater dimension to the story of the painting. To show this work with a discolored layer that masks the vibrant colors takes away from that interesting story and from the visitor’s appreciation of the artist’s skill.”
A student at Marian University in Indianapolis with a love of art and knowledge of chemistry contributed to the conservation work done on this painting that shares with viewers a classic portrayal of an image at the heart of the Christian faith.
In an internship that began at the Indianapolis Museum of Art in May, Marian senior Allie Miller analyzed the pigments used in the painting and the ingredients of its varnish.
As a chemistry major and an art studio minor, she was glad for the opportunity to work at the museum.
“I walked into the internship just wanting to get any experience I could get,” she said. “I wasn’t sure exactly what I would be doing.”
The idea that she might do work at the museum dates back to when she was a high school student in Kalamazoo, Michigan. At the time, she said that “Marian wasn’t on my radar for schools.”
But Marian’s track and field team was recruiting her to come to Indianapolis.
“One of their recruiting points was, ‘Hey, we know that you’re interested in art and working in a museum. We have a museum down the road. Maybe that would come in handy someday,’” Miller recalled. “Then, years later, here I am working as an intern in its science lab.”
Little did Miller know that she would contribute to a project that would lead to hundreds of millions of people seeing a classic image of Mary and the Christ Child.
“It’s hard to process how big this project is,” Miller said. “The stamp is going to be seen around the world. This is something that I will forever in some way have my name attached to. It’s honestly kind of mind-blowing.”
As a Protestant studying at a Catholic university in Indianapolis, Miller also appreciated that she was able to work on an image expressive of the Christian faith.
“It adds an extra level of power with it being such a recognizable image,” she said. “Whether you’re Catholic or (another denomination of) Christian, it is an across-the-board image that we can all recognize. This is a stamp that will be nationwide. You’re spreading the message even further. That’s an extra bonus to the project.”
The work also had a personal effect on Miller.
She noted that other versions of the “Madonna and Child” produced in the workshop of Sassaferrato portray Mary as looking down at the Christ Child. But the one at the Indianapolis Museum of Art used on the Christmas stamp shows her looking forward.
“She is looking at us, the viewer,” Miller said. “It feels like you’re going to inherently have a connection with her.”
