The central panel of the saint’s robes shows gentle fabric folds exquisitely hand painted in natural vegetable dyes.
The outer robe texture was achieved picking and pecking away at dark stained wood to reveal the lighter wood underneath, the same techniques the Indians would have used before the Jesuits came, and which they continue to use today.
And the same as to North American Indian people would have used for the ancient pictographs found on rocks all over that continent ( and indeed on all continents ) the style of design and the degree of detail however is almost certainly imported and imposed on the native carvers of C16th.
Awe inspiring. 