The cross is painted with natural pigments extracted from the earth and from plants. It was painted by the group, Tablas of Sarhua. The cross pictures an Andean woman carrying a spindle of thread with a woven pack and is decorated along the top with Andean flowers.
These panels derive from a custom in the small Andean community of Sarhua, located in the department of Ayacucho. For generations godparents here give a young married couple a roof beam to place in their first house. The roof beam depicts the living parents and relatives of the young couple; each person is shown working at their own occupation.
The group ADAPS - the Association of the Artists of Sarhua - first moved to Lima in the early 1970s, where they continued to paint on wood, but in Lima they depicted the Andean customs of their village of Sarhua.
