Santos Retablos

Art Historical Context

This 1936 watercolor, colored pencil, and graphite rendering by Maude Valle captures traditional Santos Retablos as part of the Index of American Design. Created under the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration, the Index documented American folk and decorative arts through highly accurate illustrations during the Great Depression. Valle’s mixed-media work on paperboard faithfully records the appearance of these small wooden religious panels, which typically measured just 7 to 11 inches. Santos retablos are a distinctive form of Hispanic folk art from the American Southwest,...