As I mentioned yesterday, I went into Mexico Lindo Furniture in Santa Fe with a specific goal: I wanted to track down the retablos I saw in this store in 2022, and hopefully buy one.
As I was looking around the store, I saw plenty of cool things – like this double-headed angel carved out of wood. I knew I was on the side of the store where I saw the bins filled with retablos three years ago, but where are the bins? I’m looking around, and this side of the store has been rearranged and laid out differently. But then I spotted one of the retablos from 2022 (which I featured in the post mentioned above), and it was wedged into a space on a big wooden door, as you can see above. I was excited to spot a familiar image, but where were the others? I tracked down the proprietor, a guy named Marco, and asked him about the retablos.
Marco said that someone came into the store a couple years ago and bought almost all of them! My heart sank! But there was still this one, which – I have to say, was probably my favorite from the 2022 group – so it seemed to be destiny that I buy this one this time. And I did!
I definitely want to learn more about retablos and the history of these paintings on tin, but in the meantime, there was this open book on the table in front of the retablo I just bought, and as you can see it explains that this imagery is referred to as “Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners.” It may be a little hard to read from the picture below, so I’ll paraphrase the text: the original painting of this theme is believed to have been done in the early 18th century for an altar formerly at Frascati, Italy. A copy of the painting was brought to Mexico in 1719 by a Jesuit missionary and placed in the city of Zacatecas, where it became the patron.”
I’m pretty excited to add this piece to my overall art collection – I’ll have to find a good frame for it.