From where I stood, staring across rows of heavy furniture at the auction house, I could barely make out the carvings framing the mirror. I could see that they were colorful and a little crude, but they made the mirror one of the more engaging items at the auction.
I followed a narrow path that had been left open between the furniture and the wall and made my way to the mirror. I was astounded at what I saw:
It was a beautiful piece of folk art, with hand-carved people, animals, instruments, hats and masks. The subjects on each panel of the mirror appeared to tell their own story: A farm or harvest scene at the top with two people playing instruments, a tidy wall of masks on the right with perhaps the mask-maker, a carnival scene along the bottom with dancing and music, and uniform rows of hats on the left along with the hat-maker.
What was this art form, I wondered.
I later learned that it was a traditional Peruvian retablo – this one with a mirror at its center. Most are dioramas in a shadow box with side panels that open up to reveal a center. All three sides show figures in everyday or religious scenes.
Retablos were first brought to Peru by the Spanish Conquistadors when they took over the country in the 16th century. They were called Santero boxes, with carved and painted figures that the Catholic Church used to teach its religion to the Peruvian people. As such, the figures were religious in nature.
The boxes were carried to small villages in the Andes by travelers transporting Spanish goods. Over the next two centuries, the Andean peoples transformed the boxes into their own mode expression. They carved figures from their own culture – scenes of everyday life, carnivals, shops and social gatherings such as weddings. Some of the figures remained religious.
Retablos are said to be found in several Latin American counties. Mexican artisans, for example, painted them on tin. The earliest boxes and figures in Peru were carved out of wood. Later, other materials were used for the figures, including gypsum (used to make plaster of Paris) and clay.
Families handed down the craft through generations. One surname that came up frequently was the Jimenez family, several of whom still make retablos in Peru and also in this country. One of the most notable appeared to be Nicario Jimenez, who now lives in Florida.
Other family members remain in Peru. The BBC visited the workshop of his brother Claudio Jiménez Quispe in Lima, Peru. He has been making them since a child, he said in the video, and he is said to be one of the country’s most famous makers. His son and daughters work with him. His art is about poor people who are suffering, he said, so his works focus on social issues.
Retablos are a form of peasant art, and not many craftspeople make them anymore. People like the Jimenez family seem to have revived the craft, today adding the political turmoil in their country to retablo’s traditional themes.
Here are some other retablos, with mirrors and without mirrors.
