Retablo Paintings

A retablo is a Latin American devotional painting. The paintings are usually small in size, considered to be folk art and use iconography derived from traditional church art.

Retablos can represent a specific religious subject/person or they can tell a story, which is called narrative. The stories usually recall dangerous events that actually occurred, and which the person survived and/or triumphed, thanks to the help of a sacred person (God, Mary or a saint). The retablos are made to thank the sacred person for protection.








(Secular Retablo Painting by Dianne Bennett)