Retablos or "laminas" as they are known in Mexico, are small oil paintings on tin, zinc, wood or copper which venerate a multiplicity of Catholic saints. Dating to after the Spanish conquest, retablos were used in home altars and churches as devotional icons and were commonly invoked for protection against plagues, fires, temptation, poverty, infertility and sin. Patron saints like "San Ysidro Labrador" were invoked before harvest for prosperous crop and confessors may have confided in "San Juan Nepomuceno," the patron saint of lawyers and Bohemia.

View Our Retablos Catalogue->
Colonial Arts
1028 Kearny Street, San Francisco, CA 94133 USA
415-505-0680 or info@colonialarts.com