[Retablo] This panel, or retablo, depicts the Virgin Mary as the "divine shepherdess." Retablo is the term New Mexican Hispanics use to refer to images of saints painted on flat wooden panels. The oldest documented New Mexican retablos date to the 1780s.

Some still remain in Catholic homes, and are used during a family's private devotions. The images permit worshipers to maintain close spiritual contact with God through the mediation of saints and the Virgin.

Courtesy of the National Museum of American History, from Mrs. William C. F. Robards, 1967.
Retablo, La Divina Pastora, by JosJ Aragon (active 1825-35). New Mexico, about 1825 A.D., wood and pigment

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