Old Spanish Colonial Mexican Retablo, Oil on Tin. "Our Lady of Light." Written on the back: "To Dan from Pap." 

Overall: 18 X 14 in. 

Sight: 13 1/2 X 9 1/2 in. 

A retablo is a devotional painting, especially a small popular or folk art one using iconography derived from traditional Catholic church art. More generally, retablo is also the Spanish term for a "retable" or "reredos" above an altar, whether a large altarpiece painting or an elaborate wooden structure with sculptures. Typically this includes painting, sculpture, or a combination of the two, and an elaborate framework enclosing it. The Latin etymology of the Spanish word means "board behind." Aside from being found behind the altar, similar ornamental structures are built and carved over facades and doorways, called overdoors. Small retablos are often devotional or votive paintings, often on rectangular sheets of tin that illustrate holy images such as Christ, the Virgin Mother, or one of the hundreds of saints. Many are ex-votos ("from a vow") that depict the story that led to their commission, usually dangerous or threatening events that occurred like an earthquake or illness which the commissioner survived, thanks to the intercession of a sacred being like God, Mary, or a saint. Both devotional and especially ex-voto retablos may be deposited at a shrine as a votive offering, or kept at home. Reredos of the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance in Spain grew extremely large and elaborate, typically using carved and gilded wood, and rising as high as 40 feet or more. The tradition of making them was taken to the new Spanish Empire in America. By the late 18th Century the word became synonymous with retablo, used for much smaller popular religious paintings, both conventional devotional images and ex-votos.