26 Ex-Voto
Unable to control meteorological events or physical calamities, comfort was sought in animistic beliefs that were appealed to and rewarded at appropriate times. Thus evolved a distinctive type of offering: a votive gift bestowed upon supernatural beings in thanks for help received, or to placate them so orderwould prevail. It’s name, “Ex-Voto” derives from Latin: ex (from) and votum (vow) -in other words, a token fromsome individual or group of individuals for favors received.
It is impossible not to feel moved when visiting a church or shrine and encountering those gifts that popular Catholicism offers its favorite saints. These little dramatic paintings, whose roots may perhaps be traced to cultural narrative painting from the end of the Middle Ages,though its aesthetic affinities lie as much with modern art as with what we would call primitive art. It is of utmost importance to mention that this is not a spontaneous art form as it is subject to a popular and codified language, which means that it must follow certain rules. In this sense, it may be considered a kind of pictorial and verbal narrative. The content of each of these pieces stems from two human universes: daily life in terms of illnesses, accidents, natural disasters, injustice and other calamities on the one hand, and on the other, religious imagery which represents the distinct aspects of Christ, the Virgin or the Saints, to whom artists or donors show themselves to be highly devoted and to whom they pay frequent visits in their churches.
More than an expressive painting, the ex-voto is an effective object, a kind of agent that both modifies and carries out an action. The ex-voto establishes a sort of interchange and a certain complicity between humanity and divinity. Though it may appear naive to out eyes, it is a pragmatic act. It could even be considered as a kind of currency with which one pays for favors received. Without it there is no deal. The ex-voto is charged with power -religious power. It is like the relics or holy water which are endowed with some force. Even the words chosen to express love and gratitude toward the divine being are effective. They reaffirm the love story involving a human being and his or her benefactor, and reinforce the gratitude felt by the former. But once this love story and this gratitude are rendered in paint on wood or metal, they become not only permanent, but public. The world where this kind of worship is carried out is one where people live as a community. And it is through ex-votos that the community learns that something important and extraordinary has occurred between the Virgin or Christ and one of its members, but that this occurrence is assimilated into the life of the community as if it were just another everyday event.
A deistic religiosity would have little faith in such an act and would reject it in the end. On the other hand, we are aware that by taking ex-votos out of context -the sanctuary -we have in a way disarmed them. Their removal makes them lose power and converts them back into stolen goods. Nevertheless, whether or not they are seen in their natural environment, these pieces are an endless source of information for understanding the history of human anguish.
-Margarita De Orellana Subdirectora, Artes de Mexico Magazine
-Gloria Fraser Giffords “Mexican Retablos”