These ingenious portable religious triptychs are called oratorios de garrafa (bottle oratories) because of their cylindrical shape when closed. They are also referred to as "saddlebag" oratories since they are portable, and, in past times, were transported from town to town on horseback. These triptychs were among a small number of essential possessions belonging to families who regularly moved about northeast Brazil to escape drought or to look for new employment. Typically, they depict Christ crucified in the center section, flanked by the Virgin María and San José, Portable triptychs were very popular during the nineteenth century, especially in Juaziero and other part of the northeast. Portable altars from that period are still proudly owned and used by families today who pass them down from generation to generation. Ana Pamplona, a ninety-year-old santera from the state of Paraíba, has carved wood for much of her long life, and she continues to make portable altars and other traditional images. As one can see, her colors are bolder and her images a bit less realistic than earlier pieces from the same general area, but the basic features are the same. Iconographically, she has continued to include the traditional attributes associated with each image – José with his flowering staff, and María with her blue veil, for example.

Marion Oettinger, Jr., "Triptych," The Folk Art of Latin America: Visiones Del Pueblo (New York: Dutton Studio Books in association with the Museum of American Folk Art, 1992), 97.