Just up the road from the British Museum. there’s a moving exhibition at the Wellcome Institute of Mexican ex-votos. These are mostly hand-painted tin panels given in thanks for the intercession of saints when called upon in cases of extreme jeopardy from accident, sickness or crime.

In mid-fall from a building, a workman would cry out to S Anthony and would survive with minor injuries. A wife would pray fervently from her sick-bed to the Virgin, a family from their drowning car, a mill-hand as his arm was caught in pre H&S machinery.

The retablos are naive, sincere images expressing the gratitude of ordinary people for the blessings bestowed upon them, but their quaint simplicity distances them from our cosy, secure lives.

In an adjoining room is a wall reconstructed from more recent ex-votos harvested from the walls of a church. These are letters – hand-written or typed – drawings…