ABSTRACT
Annemarie Weyl Carr’s boundless intellectual range more than once included forays from Byzantium into medieval Iberia, a part of the world that, despite its remoteness from the Byzantine omphalos, speedily came to appreciate the unique dynamic powers of the Virgin Mary and her images.1 These brief but rewarding intersections of our interests inspired the present work, which traces the visual afterlife of a Marian miracle story as it traveled from its source in Byzantium to my arguably less civilized corner of the Mediterranean world. In honoring the legacy that Annemarie built during her sojourn on the prairies of “New Spain,” I hope that the scrutiny of this miracle’s westward journey will offer fresh testimony to the centrality of the Byzantine legacy in the medieval visual world, even in unexpected places and times.
