Beginning on March 4th, 2001, the San Jose Museum of Art presented the West Coast premiere of El Favor de los Santos: The Retablo Collection of New Mexico State University. This exhibition showcased the finest and most extensive United States museum collection of Mexican retablos - jewel-like devotional paintings on tin. The nineteenth-century popularization of the tin retablo was examined and contextualized within a 500-year tradition of religious art in Mexico. El Favor de los Santos featured approximately 200 objects, including more than 100 exquisite retablos. The exhibition was on view through June 3, 2001. 

While retablos are part of a rich history of religious art, they are unique in that they were often created by self-taught artists for the purpose of private devotion. During the nineteenth-century, only ten to fifteen percent of all retablos were painted by academically trained artists, working on commission for churches or individuals who could afford them. The vast majority of retablos were mass-produced in small workshops throughout the Bahio area of central Mexico and were sold at small markets and stores surrounding numerous pilgrimage sites. The low cost of tin and production made them readily available to members of every social class. As a result, retablos became a primary component of Mexican home altars, and were thought to encourage favorable relationships between worshippers and the divine. In the nineteenth-century Mexican household, retablos were seen as crucial to good health and prosperity, providing holy protection from life's misfortunes. 

Retablos have been admired the world over for their naive yet powerful style, drawing from a combination of European, Spanish colonial, and indigenous Mexican traditions. In the poignant Saint Wilgefortis, Virgin and Martyr (circa nineteenth-century), the artist's lack of formal training is evident in the awkward placement of the figure on the cross, the simple landscape, and flat perspective. Despite these stylistically unsophisticated elements, the beloved icon is very tenderly rendered. It is perhaps this fusion of simplistic rendering and heartfelt emotion that makes retablos so appealing to audiences today. 

Although derived from a variety of sources, the retablos are distinctly Mexican. According to Elizabeth Zarur, assistant professor of art at NMSU and co-curator of the exhibition, most Mexican tin retablos were produced in the latter half of the nineteenth-century. In the 1830s, Mexico began producing tin for roofing and other uses, giving artists a cheap material for mass producing the devotional paintings that were in great demand in the country. At the turn of the 20th century, however, inexpensive chromolithography replaced oil-on-tin retablos, so their widespread manufacture only lasted about 70 years. 

A related form of art featured in the exhibition was the ex-voto, which combines visual images and text to depict a miraculous cure or rescue. The top section of the ex-voto featured a contemporary scene, usually of an accident or illness. The image of the saint or holy figure who was appealed to is also included, as well as a written legend explaining what favor was requested and granted. The ex-voto section of the exhibition includes examples of the art form and photo murals showing how ex-votos are displayed publicly at three sanctuaries in Mexico and at the Santuario de Chimayo in northern New Mexico. 

A complimentary bilingual education brochure accompanied the exhibition, and a 300-page full-color bilingual catalogue is available in The Museum Store. The exhibition is presented in conjunction with Contemporary Devotion, a survey of contemporary work inspired by the retablo tradition. 

El Favor de los Santos: The Retablo Collection of New Mexico State University was organized by the University Art Gallery at New Mexico State University with major support provided by the Stockman Family Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. Generous additional support was provided by the Office of Cultural Affairs of the State of New Mexico, U.S./Mexico Fund for Culture, Fundacion Cultural Bancomer, Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, New Mexico Arts Division, NMSU College of Arts and Sciences Research Center, NMSU Center for International Programs, and NMSU Honors Program. 

Major sponsorship for the San Jose presentation of El Favor de los Santos was provided by Wells Fargo. The San Jose presentation was organized by former SJMA Katie and Drew Gibson Chief Curator Susan Landauer.