Strange Posture, Curious Gesture, Antique Snapshot of Women in Long Coats and Bonnets antique Mexican retablo painting simple as can be

simple as can be

3 1/2" t x 3 3/8" l x 2 7/8" w and signed RB on the underside

Absent a lid as evident

and some aging to the wooden base as well

Strange Posture, Curious Gesture, Antique Snapshot of Women in Long Coats and Bonnets antique Mexican retablo painting simple as can beA very curious one, feeling to me like an early film still very striking, but what is going on here? Perhaps the woman in the foreground (what a face!) is in fact on ice skates, which would explain her strange posture, or perhaps she is hiding something or someone behind her skirt? (Is there a child there, bent over, in black too?) And what is the woman behind her with raised arm as if about to chop the air actually doing? I don't know, but in their