Votive offering dedicated to San Nicolás de Tolentino

Frida Kahlo collected more than 400 exvotos—votive paintings or small altarpieces—as a testimony of the richness of popular art in Mexico, as well as the artistic expression and faith of Mexican people. Exvotos are small offerings painted by people that want to thank the Virgin or some saints for a favor they received. Almost all of the pieces in the Frida Kahlo Museum collection are from churches located in the Mexican states of Jalisco, Michoacán and Zacatecas. “With fervor of my hearth” was a common saying in Jalisco, which was used by the faithful ones in the middle of the 19th century, to thank their saints for the favors they received. This saying appears in the exvotos dedicated to the Virgin of the Rosary of Talpa and the Lord of Encino de Yahualica.