As a Catholic, I have to admit we don’t have any idea what Mary looked like.
And that praying to a statue of Mary is a waste of time.
In fact, I admit we stole the idea of temples, saints, etc. from Greece when they were conquered. We acquired their pagan religion symbols, feasts, beliefs, and added them to our own.
This is no problem because once a pope declares something true, it is really true, even if it was pagan. Add some holy water and we Catholics don’t care the backstory. As the only True Church, we make the rules.
Just don’t forget the holy water, the holy smoke and the holy moly. Did I forget any other holy somethings?
Many websites attempting to describe this are so wordy and highfalutin'.