Shrines, churches, and sanctuaries throughout
Mexico are adorned with the small oil paintings known as ex-votos. Typically painted on sheets of tin or copper, ex-votos
are offered as testimony and thanks to a particular saint whose divine
intervention saved the petitioner from sickness, death, or disaster—the story
of which accompanies the painting.
Roughly translated, it reads:
Upon returning to my house on the street of my work, there appeared two
dead people that told me to take them to the graveyard, and I thank you, Virgin
of the Lakes, that nothing happened to me. Jacinto. Mexico. 1965.
More
The custom of ex-votos arrived in Mexico the same
way the Catholic saints did—with the Spanish. Not too different from
pre-existing indigenous practices of making offerings to the gods, ex-votos
became popular firs...
Read More
The custom of ex-votos arrived in Mexico the same
way the Catholic saints did—with the Spanish. Not too different from
pre-existing indigenous practices of making offerings to the gods, ex-votos
became popular first amongst the rich, who had them painted on canvas, and
then, when sheets of tin became inexpensive, amongst all levels of society.
Early ex-votos typically depict the static image of a saint, but by the 16th
century, the narrative tradition had been established, and it is the one that
still persists today. The art of ex-votos has influenced a large number of
Mexican artists including Roberto Montenegro, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Frida
Kahlo, and Diego Rivera, who was one of the first to start collecting them.
Read Less
Details and Dimensions
4.7" x 6.3"
