Art @ Home: Tell an Important Story

Retablos are a type of art that features a story that is shared through words and images, and they have a long history.

The works in this exhibition are called ex-votos. This is a type of retablo created as an offering of thanks to a saint or to a divinity, often in tribute for their intervention in a personal tragedy or setback. The word “retablo,” from the Latin retro tabulum (behind the altar table), originally referred to devotional paintings hung in Catholic churches in Europe. In Mexico, reflecting traditions embedded in local cultures by Spanish conquest beginning in the sixteenth century, retablos became known as small devotional paintings, made on metal, that are placed on the wall of a shrine, church, or home altar. These works are usually commissioned from local artists, working anonymously, but signed and dated by the person requesting the painting.

Let’s spend some time trying to “read” the story that is told in one of the retablos, beginning with the painted images at the top of the work of art.