A SMALL-SCALE UNIVERSE
Two tiers, many ways to look
This trunk-retablo does not need monumental dimensions to command attention. Its structure suggests multiple scenes and reminds us how much meaning may be composed on a miniature scale.
The eye travels from one tier to another
Museum record 72574 measures just 16 × 25 × 17 centimetres. Imagine the attention required to arrange figures, space and gestures within such a small construction. Its two tiers invite the eye to discover one scene, then search for connections with the next.
Are they successive moments, complementary episodes or simply a compositional solution? These possibilities deserve exploration, not imposed answers. Traditional San Marcos compositions are documented, but two tiers alone cannot identify the characters in this object.
Explore the historical sources: Ministerio de Cultura / Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana · Ministerio de Cultura del Perú
Craftsmanship also lives in the smallest details
The catalogue records a weight of 1,943 grams for the historic piece. That figure reminds us we are studying a real material object, not merely its image, yet it cannot tell us the composition of each figure or the distribution of weight across wood and fittings.
A contemporary commission creates an opportunity to explore the dialogue between scale and narrative without pretending to reproduce undocumented mixtures or mechanisms. Its craftsmanship will lie in translating what can be seen into a considered, safe and individual new work.
Explore the historical sources: Ministerio de Cultura / Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana · Instituto Nacional de Cultura / Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana
THE ATELIER COLLECTION
From the story to your own commission
Discover designs inspired by the heritage of Ayacucho. Each proposal opens the door to a new handcrafted piece made especially for your collection.
ATELIER DESIGN Historic reference · 72574
Trunk retablo · two tiers
Artisan commission · tailored quotation
Imagine this piece in your collectionAtelier AllpaCraft designs inspired by historical references. Explore the museum records in the sources and commission a new artisan creation.
ATELIER DESIGNS · COMMISSIONED WORK
A closer look at this Atelier design, conceived as inspiration for a new handcrafted commission.
Explore the research behind the story Historical records, interpretations, methods and unanswered questions
VISUAL EVIDENCE REVIEW
What reference images show — and what remains uncertain
Compared with one archival museum overview, not a physical examination. A reference image does not document completed handmade work; iconography and construction require specialist review.
- Museum overview
- The archival overview shows two stacked rows of small figures and an ornamental front panel.
- Broad structure retained
- The proposal keeps the two stacked registers and a decorated frontal panel.
- Differences / uncertainty
- The reference image of the front ornament is substantially clearer and more contrasting; its central motif and the number and arrangement of figures require specific comparison.
Decisions requiring a specialist master
- Compare both tiers without presuming San Marcos iconographic hierarchy from the presence of two floors.
- Verify the reference image's central frontal ornament against high-resolution photography before asserting exact correspondence.
- Treat 1,943 grams as the museum object's recorded weight only, not a target for production without material analysis.
Measured colour saturation differs between source images, but cannot establish the original paint colour or the accuracy of a future handmade recreation.
View historical photographs in the official Ministry collection record ↗ · Museum photograph reuse rights remain unverified.
01 / RESEARCH QUESTION
The central question
How should densely arranged miniature figures be read without inventing their identities?
Interpretive thesis
Two-tier composition supports analysis of narrative organization and scale, but not an unsupported list of characters or rituals.
02 / THE RESEARCH
How we traced this story
- Consulted National Museum of Peruvian Culture collection records, historical documents and specialist publications. Each object’s recorded characteristics were kept distinct from the interpretations explored by AllpaCraft.
- Contextual museum, heritage and scholarly literature explains forms and historical uses; it does not automatically attribute an individual object to a named maker.
- Separates documented facts about the museum object, what can be seen in the photograph, and proposals requiring validation by a commissioned Atelier master.
03 / CLUES FROM THE SOURCES
What the historical sources reveal
These clues connect documented history with possible meanings. The original records are linked so you can explore the story yourself.
Measured museum object
- What history tells us
- The source records wood, 16 × 25 × 17 cm and a weight of 1,943 grams.
- A possible meaning
- Weight is a rare datum useful to guide structural questions.
- A question worth exploring
- It does not reveal the materials of individual miniatures.
Discover the sources: Ministerio de Cultura / Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana
Stacked figurative registers
- What history tells us
- The frontal view shows two crowded registers above the painted chest.
- A possible meaning
- Its design can be studied through relative spacing and composition.
- A question worth exploring
- A low-resolution image cannot verify every character.
Discover the sources: Ministerio de Cultura / Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana
Form does not prove function
- What history tells us
- Traditional livestock San Marcos boxes could have two levels with distinct ritual roles.
- A possible meaning
- This provides a comparative question, not a categorical identification.
- A question worth exploring
- Two tiers alone do not establish that this chest served in livestock marking.
Discover the sources: Instituto Nacional de Cultura / Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana
DOCUMENTARY SOURCE TRIANGULATION
Stories and clues from the archives
Museum records preserve names, dimensions and dates; research opens further ways to understand the figures and stories. Each clue is linked to a source, with possible interpretations clearly identified.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
Ministry record 72574 lists wood, 16 × 25 × 17 cm, 1,943 g, national registration 0000090055 and MNCP-000000012076; these are attributes of the museum original.
Explore the interpretation and its open questions
What we can discover so far
The register does not break down the object's mass across the chest, figurines and hardware, so it cannot determine each component's exact material or making process.
- Ministerio de Cultura / Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana — individual object record
ONE POSSIBLE READING
Two tiers may arrange complementary scenes, but the structure alone cannot transfer the saint-and-livestock hierarchy documented for certain San Marcos chests to this specific object.
Explore the interpretation and its open questions
What we can discover so far
The ministerial declaration describes one traditional programme alongside its historical transformation; it does not identify the figures of object 72574.
Another way to read the scene
The tiers may be a structural, spatial or decorative solution rather than a specific devotional narrative.
A question for further research
Inventory legible figures and gestures, compare works of established provenance and leave undocumented identities unassigned.
- Ministerio de Cultura / Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana — individual object record
- Ministerio de Cultura del Perú — typological context
- Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos — documentary comparison
ONE POSSIBLE READING
The recorded mass raises questions about construction and stability, but cannot establish a species of wood, hinge alloys or the figurines' material in this object.
Explore the interpretation and its open questions
What we can discover so far
General scholarship on Ayacucho techniques is not a laboratory analysis of 72574, and the object's historic mass must not be imposed on future craftsmanship.
Another way to read the scene
Hardware, filling, later additions, weighing conditions or wood density could account for the result without identifying a single cause.
A question for further research
Document components and structural safety in a future commission without promising to reproduce an unverified weight distribution.
- Ministerio de Cultura / Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana — individual object record
- Instituto Nacional de Cultura / Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana — typological context
REGIONAL ICONOGRAPHY AND WORKSHOP HISTORY
The craft, its artists and the stories they shared
Other collections and research help us trace how Ayacucho artisans transformed familiar forms into new narratives. We compare ideas and techniques while respecting the individual history of each museum object.
ICONOGRAPHIC COMPARISON
Two tiers do not automatically encode two ritual episodes
The Ministry's San Marcos description mentions a traditional saints-and-livestock arrangement, whereas AECID's separate Nativity object (585 CA) groups 76 figures across five steps, demonstrating variation in retablo composition.
- Research hypothesis
- The two registers on 72574 may guide narrative viewing, but their number alone cannot determine a religious hierarchy or chronological sequence.
- Viable alternative
- The division may simply distribute miniatures, preserve space or stabilize this compact chest-like form.
- What still invites research
- Neither comparative construction proves the identity of saints, livestock scenes, figurine materials or ritual function for MNCP-000000012076.
References: Ministerio de Cultura / Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana · Ministerio de Cultura del Perú · Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo
WORKSHOP HISTORY
Recorded material is not a workshop recipe
Record 72574 lists wood and 1,943 grams. The Ministry's declaration and AECID's account of another collection piece describe historical changes in wood, modelling mixtures and finishing techniques across the retablo tradition.
- Research hypothesis
- Comparative techniques may help frame questions about the components and mass distribution of 72574, but cannot predetermine the answers.
- Viable alternative
- The figures and fittings of 72574 could have been made using different materials and procedures from the AECID example.
- What still invites research
- A catalogue label of 'wood' does not identify the species or the figurines' substance. Total mass cannot establish potato dough, bread, plaster, varnish or a specific recipe for the original.
References: Ministerio de Cultura / Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana · Ministerio de Cultura del Perú · Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo
CRITICAL ICONOGRAPHIC GLOSSARY
Terms for reading the historical objects
These are sourced comparative definitions. No term alone authenticates an object, establishes its maker or guarantees a specific historical use.
- San Marcos / San Lucas devotional chest
-
An Andean devotional wooden chest associated, among other uses, with requests for livestock protection and fertility; the Ministry describes saint figures and pastoral scenes in a documented traditional configuration.
Interpretive limit: A documented traditional format does not establish the particular narrative, function or date of every two-tier trunk-retablo.
Sources: Instituto Nacional de Cultura / Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana · Ministerio de Cultura del Perú
- Ayacucho retablo
-
A craft tradition from Ayacucho whose knowledge, techniques and iconography were recognized by Peru's Ministry of Culture in 2019, combining figurine modelling, painted compositions and varied subjects.
Interpretive limit: Recognition of a cultural practice does not certify any particular object's maker, exact materials or accession history.
Sources: Ministerio de Cultura del Perú
- Imagery-maker chest / portable altarpiece
-
Historiographic terms applied to portable devotional and figurative containers; Labán Salguero documents the importance of separating names and trajectories when studying nineteenth-century objects.
Interpretive limit: These comparative terms do not establish a direct chronology, maker or functional continuity for the twentieth-century MNCP trunk-retablos.
Sources: Instituto Nacional de Cultura / Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana · Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos
- Trunk-retablo
-
A descriptive museum category for trunk-shaped objects with a figural programme; the confirmed dimensions, materials and identification belong to each individual inventory record.
Interpretive limit: Chest shape alone does not prove practical storage, ritual use or a particular mechanism for the specific object.
Sources: Ministerio de Cultura / Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana · Instituto Nacional de Cultura / Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana
- Compositional tiers or registers
-
Spatial levels organizing figurines and scenes within a box; the 2019 declaration describes one traditional plan while other documented works use different groupings.
Interpretive limit: The number of tiers alone does not identify saints, pastoral subjects or the reading order of an individual work.
Sources: Ministerio de Cultura del Perú · Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo
- Floral ornament
-
Painted roses and vegetal designs documented on doors and surfaces of certain traditional chests and also visible on objects held in other collections.
Interpretive limit: Similar flowers do not establish the religious meaning, author or pigments of any particular museum inventory.
Sources: Ministerio de Cultura del Perú · Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo
- Modelled figurines and pastes
-
The ministerial declaration describes sculpted figures made from mixtures that vary across workshops and periods; this is a general technique account, not a laboratory analysis of these objects.
Interpretive limit: Neither an overview photograph nor a chest's total recorded mass establishes a figurine's recipe, wood species or adhesive.
Sources: Ministerio de Cultura del Perú · Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo
- Polychromy
-
Use of painted colour on the chest and its figures, a feature of a tradition combining carving, modelling and pictorial work; visual description differs from chemical pigment identification.
Interpretive limit: Colour differences between archival images cannot establish an individual object's original pigments, binders or production methods.
Sources: Instituto Nacional de Cultura / Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana · Ministerio de Cultura del Perú
- Workshop lineage and transmission
-
Documented relationships of apprenticeship, family practice and changing audiences; Joaquín López Antay's career is a well-described part of this broader historical context.
Interpretive limit: Artistic lineage does not establish that López Antay, Jesús Urbano Rojas or any other workshop member made a specific MNCP object.
Sources: Ministerio de Cultura del Perú · Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
- National registration and museum accession
-
Documentary identifiers that distinguish individual objects; national registration, MNCP accession and a public web-record number may serve different administrative roles.
Interpretive limit: Identical titles or broadly similar scenes do not establish a crosswalk between different registration numbers without documentary evidence.
Sources: Ministerio de Cultura / Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana · Instituto Nacional de Cultura / Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana
OPEN RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
Plausible interpretations awaiting verification
Each proposal separates supporting evidence, a viable alternative and a check that could refute it. Evidence support is NOT a probability, museum authentication or approved object-level metadata.
HYPOTHESIS · contextual support
The two tiers may organize related narrative scenes
Horizontal stacking may support complementary narrative episodes, but the current overview does not establish the identities or order of any individual characters.
- Evidence
- The museum overview visibly shows two tiers; broader typological studies document varied uses of tiers in Andean boxes.
- Alternative explanation
- The division may merely optimize space rather than encode a devotional hierarchy or chronological story.
- How to test it
- Request high-resolution tier photographs and a figure inventory from the museum, reviewed by an iconography specialist.
Supporting references: mincul-72574 , mincul-obras-2008
HYPOTHESIS · exploratory reading
The recorded weight could guide structural research
The compact size and recorded weight of 1,943 grams suggest a technical question about the mass and construction of components, not an identification of their specific materials.
- Evidence
- Museum record 72574 provides wood, dimensions of 16 × 25 × 17 cm and weight of 1,943 g without a component breakdown.
- Alternative explanation
- Metal fittings, wood density, miniatures or measurement conditions could all explain the total mass.
- How to test it
- Ask for a component description and weight confirmation; seek approved non-destructive material assessment if feasible.
Supporting references: mincul-72574
04 / CRITICAL DISCUSSION
Interpretation and implications
The scale of miniature narrative
The museum original measures 16 cm high, 25 cm wide and 17 cm deep, and weighs 1,943 g. Those values belong to the collection object, not an anticipated replica.
Its registration number is 0000090055 and its catalogue period is broadly the twentieth century.
Where the evidence ends
Figures occupy two horizontal registers, yet the current documentation cannot securely name them all. A compelling interpretation must resist the temptation to narrate unseen details.
A maker's reconstruction brief
Labeled digital details can help discuss spacing, frontal painting and the proposed composition. The selected master should independently settle support, attachment and figure-making techniques.
05 / QUESTIONS THAT REMAIN
The questions that keep this history alive
- Only a 600-pixel overview photograph.
- Museum weight is not a commission specification.
- Maker and figure materials have not been published in the record.
06 / OPEN QUESTIONS
Next lines of inquiry
- Are there high-resolution views of both tiers?
- Does the recorded weight include every attachment?
- Which technique can preserve the miniature composition?
07 / READ FURTHER
Books, archives and museum records
Museum catalogue records and contextual scholarship checked for this editorial dossier on October 22, 2026. Only object-specific records establish object metadata; broader sources do not authenticate an individual piece.
- Ministerio de Cultura / Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana. Ficha de catálogo MNCP-000000012076, registro nacional 0000090055; PDF de colección. Consult source ↗ . Source consulted · 2026-10-22
- Ministerio de Cultura. Ficha oficial PDF MNCP-000000012076. Consult source ↗ . Source consulted · 2026-10-22
- Instituto Nacional de Cultura / Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana. Obras maestras en las colecciones del Museo Nacional de la Cultura Peruana, 2008, pp. 38–41 y 52–55. Consult source ↗ . Source consulted · 2026-10-22
- Ministerio de Cultura del Perú. RVM 098-2019-VMPCIC-MC y nota institucional de 13 de junio de 2019 sobre el retablo ayacuchano. Consult source ↗ . Source consulted · 2026-10-22
- Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. Labán Salguero (2020), Reflexiones en torno al estudio de los retablos portátiles peruanos y las cajas de imaginero del siglo XIX, Tesis 13(16):155–168. Consult source ↗ . Source consulted · 2026-10-22
- Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo. Obra del mes (2025): Nacimiento, retablo de la colección AECID, inventario 585 CA; técnica y morfología de una obra distinta. Consult source ↗ . Source consulted · 2026-10-22
- Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Diego Alonso Ortiz Ortigas (2024), Crear y validar a un artista: Joaquín López Antay, su obra y el Estado (1940–1977). Consult source ↗ . Source consulted · 2026-10-22