Photo by David B. Moore Nuestra Señora de la Cueva Santa, or Our Lady of the Sacred Cave, circa 1850-1860s

In the 19th century, religious pieces known as retablos—colorful hand-painted narrative panels depicting Christian saints and holy figures—flourished as folk art in small towns and villages in Mexico. The colonial era was over, and “a self-taught, provincial art started to bloom,” notes James Caswell of Historia Antiques, a Spanish Colonial antiques shop in Santa Monica, California. “A growing highly devout middle class could afford paintings like retablos,” he adds. “They felt the images kept them moral and safe.”

Artists copied their subjects from books, engravings or church artwork, says Allan Bone of Allan N. Bone Gallery in Scottsdale. “The Catholic Church dictated how the saints should be represented,” and the craftsmen strictly followed these rules, he explains. For instance, St. Michael always had a sword to signify his role as an angelic warrior, and St. Raphael had to be rendered with a fish, which—according to the Bible—he used as a tool to heal others and drive away the devil.

Jerry Smith, Associate Curator of American Art at Phoenix Art Museum, oversaw the museum’s recent exhibition of retablos created in New Mexico prior to statehood. “The Spanish brought over the idea of painting images of saints for people to venerate,” he tutors, adding that the largely illiterate populations could relate to pictorial images and stories. “All the heart and soul you see in accomplished works of art are present in retablos, but they were done by people who didn’t have that level of training [fine-art education],” he adds. Bone, meanwhile, notes that retablos are simply rendered, naïve, charming and full of life.

With the advent of lithography, retablos as an art form became obsolete by 1915. The pieces produced up to the year 1880 or so usually are referred to as antiques; after that, the term vintage would apply.

In the 1980s, Southwest style became increasingly popular, and the retablo as an art form or collectible rose in price as it became exposed to a larger audience.

The majority of retablos were painted on tin panels (though those crafted in what is now New Mexico were made out of wood because tin was not yet available.) At the time, tin was cut in standard sizes, so retablos typically are 3 ½" x 5", 5" x 7", 7" x 10", 10" x 14", or 14" x 20".