Religious paintings have colorful history

Kimberley McGee

Friday, Nov. 16, 2001 | 9:37 a.m.

Images of faith, hope and adoration have graced home altars of devout Catholics in Mexico and the Southwest United States for hundreds of years.

The small religious oil paintings, called "retablos," are a physical manifestation of religious beliefs and an enduring article of history.

More than 300 retablos from the 19th century are on display in the exhibit "El Favor de los Santos: The Retablo Collection of New Mexico State University" at the Las Vegas Art Museum through Jan. 13. It is the largest public collection of retablos in the United States.

The retablos in the exhibit can be traced to the early 1800s. Most were painted on tin that was inexpensively produced in Mexico.

This is the type of exhibit the museum plans to show as it moves in a new direction, LVAM Executive Director Marianne Lorenz said.

The museum's goal in presenting the retablos is to reach out to the Hispanic community, Lorenz said.

"It's a little different than anything we've done before," Lorenz said of the exhibit. "In and of itself, it has the potential to be very educational for our audience. It's an historical period and cultural aspect of life that we hadn't explored before in our exhibit program."

Each brightly colored retablo is different and compelling in its own way, she said.

"Each person will find a personal favorite," Lorenz said.

During the 19th century home altars were used as a place to gather daily and pray to saints.

Saints are considered a member of the Mexican household, said Elizabeth Zarur, assistant professor of art history at NMSU. The retablos put a face to the saint they prayed to daily about life's little trials.

"The paintings represented a very close relationship between the faithful and the image of the saint," Zarur said. "People get intimate with a saint (by praying) and the image is an (extension) of that."

There are two types of retablos. Retablo santos are images of saints painted for placement in the home. They were sold by artists or crudely made by amateurs for their own use.

The retablos were placed on altars at home or on walls so that the spiritual saints people prayed to had a face and a place in the home.

"People would put on a wall up to 10 of the saint's paintings," Zarur said.

Those in desperate need would place a piece of bread on the altar or some other offering to aid their prayers to the saints.

"They would talk to them," Zarur said. "They were almost like part of the family."

Retablos ex-votos are paintings dedicated to a saint for favors that were redeemed through prayer.

A mother might pray to her favorite saint to cure her sick daughter. If the daughter is cured, the mother promises to paint an image of the saint and the miracle that the saint delivered.

The top of the retablos ex-votos depict the miracle that took place. An image of the saint is present in the middle and below that is a declaration from the devoted of how, when and where the saint performed the miracle.

Once finished, the retablo would be delivered by the devoted person, who would travel by foot hundreds of miles to deliver the painting to the saint's church or other religious site.

"They would kneel down and enter (the church) in offering, thanks," Zarur said. "It was very important to them."

Millions of retablos were made for hundreds of years. The tin versions survived because of the durable medium used during the Victorian era.

But this is not a dead art, Zarur said. The devout continue to paint retablos on canvas, tin or purchase paintings of saints.

"It's still very much alive," Zarur said.

A woman who craved a match with a good man might pray to St. Anthony, patron saint of loneliness. The small, painted image would become the object of her daily prayers.

If her prayers are unanswered, she might wrap the retablo in cloth as a rebuff against the saint's procrastination in handling her request. If the saint continues to drag its feet, the woman would punish the painting by tucking the wrapped retablo in a drawer as further evidence of her unhappiness at the saint's reluctance to hear her prayers.

"People feel a very intimate relationship between their faithfulness and the image" of the retablo, Zarur said.

From her own experience, Zarur said many people in New Mexico continue to use retablos -- especially that of St. Joseph, a carpenter.

Many believe that by burying a retablo of St. Joseph upside down in the back yard, a home will sell faster.

"These are very personal paintings," Zarur said. "They are a part of people's lives."

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