Translated from Spanish: "Blessed art thou, virgin of Guadalupe, for healing my spine when my horse, at full gallop, fell on top of me when it was frightened by a snake. I could not walk and I prayed to you. After 60 days I am walking again, for which I give you thanks. Mr. Ramon Jalisco 1931"
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Ex-Voto paintings include three basic elements:
1)
a scene depicting a tragedy or someone with a grave illness or injury,
2) a Saint or martyr that intervened to "save the day" and
3) an inscription describing the event.
These paintings were commissioned by the person depicted in the Ex-Voto or by friends or close members of the family who were grateful for the divine intervention. They were inexpensive and usually crudly painted on small sheets of tin by an anonymous armature artist and rarely ever signed. Because the subject matter is unique for each Ex-Voto, they are still being painted by hand today. The older Ex-Votos are highly collectable.
Before the 1800s, Retablos were large gilded, painted and carved screens
which adorned churches. In the 19th century, they became smaller in
size, typically painted by unskilled artists who were commissioned or
who simply painted in bulk to sell in small booths outside the church.
The Retablos were paintings of the Virgin Mary, Christ or saints, copied
from images in churches and rarely signed by the artists. In the 1920s,
the hand painted Retablos were replaced by the abundance and availability
of larger lithographs. Today the old hand painted Retablos are collected
by individuals and museums as art pieces and can be worth hundreds of
dollars a piece.