Retablos appeared after the Spanish conquest of Mexico, as the desire
to possess a sacred object which would ensure health, fertility, and
abundance of crops, led to a transfer of beliefs from pagan images to
those of the Catholic Church. The retablo tradition flourished in the
mid-nineteenth century in Mexico when the production of tin-plated
sheets of iron, originally intended for industrial use, were
discovered by artist, since the plates were an ideal, inexpensive
surface for painting. Often painted by naive or untrained itinerant
artists, these images or láminas pintadas became accessible to the
general population because of the availability of the metal sheets.
By the end of the century, however, lithographs and steel engravings
imported from Europe provided people with a varied supply of images,
which were at the same time more colorful and affordable, and hastened
the decline of the tin retablo. Although the retablo tradition is
common throughout Latin America, the use of tin as a painting surface
for these religious images is unique to Mexico.
Framed Retablos
Retablos were often framed, perhaps by the same person who painted
them. Unfortunately, many retablos have been removed from their
original frames. Tin frames were created either as niches with the
painting set back from the glass or were designed to be flush with the
painting. Many frames were modeled, scored, painted, crimped,
pounced and punched and colored glass and painted aluminum were used
as decoration. The examples of tinsmithing and wood framing displayed
here represent retablos in the original settings as well as being
delightful examples of different types of frames.
