The Franciscan mission at this site originally had approximately twelve to fifteen statues of saints in the niches and on the altars in the nave and the sanctuary.  The five statues in the museum -

St. Anthony of Padua holding the Infant Jesus

St. Francis of Assisi

St. Peter of Alcántara

St. Bonaventure

St. Cajetan

Two other statues believed to have been at Tumacácori, La Purísima Concepción and San José, are still in use at San Xavier del Bac.  Both are in niches in the north wall with La Purísima Concepción in the east transept and San José in the west transept.

The majority of the statues that have survived appear to have been imported from Central Mexico where they were made in workshops by teams of specialists.  They are fashioned in the Baroque style which incorporated drama, movement and richness of material and detail.  The statues appear to be caught in some type of movement.

The completion of the carved wood figures required numerous natural resources.  Raw wood surfaces were traditionally sealed with gesso, a fine plaster made of gypsum and animal glue, both readily available.  The thin, white coating of gesso was polished with river pebbles and finally painted with colors soaked from local earth and flora.  The gesso seals the wood, covers the joints and provides a good ground for coloring, gilding and stamping designs that resemble textiles.  Mountain mahogany was one of the brown dye sources, only a day's trip away.  The indigo plant and the mineral cinnebar of northern Mexico provided the blue and red.

The sculptures establish the fact of some dependence on external commercial contact for materials such as brown-glass eyes, heads and finer fabrics.  The heads were in two parts to allow the insertion of the glass eyes.

The statues of saints at Tumacácori exhibit two traditional Mexican sculpture techniques - carved plank and carved figure - which aim at producing a very naturalistic figure.

The carved plank technique involves joining planks to make a sculpture-sized piece.  This piece was then hollowed out to reduce the weight.  The hollow form was then carved to represent a fully dressed figure.  In this state, the figure is called en blanco - plain, uncolored.  At this point, the work of the sculptor, escultor, or carver, entallador, is finished, and the work of the painter of flesh, encarnación, and fabric tones, estofado, and the gilder, dorador, begin.  The painters apply numerous coats of gesso and paint it  and punch decorate it to give the surface an appearance of embroidery or damask.  The St. Anthony of Padua with the Infant Jesus, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Peter of Alcántara and St. Bonaventure statues were created using the carved plank technique.

The final statue, St. Cajetan, uses a carved figure technique.  In this technique, a solid mass of material is sculpted and carved wood is joined to form an anatomical figure.  Once the figure is carved, inexpensive cloth is dipped into or painted with gesso, arranged on the figure and allowed to dry into rather natural drapery folds.  Once dry, the cloth is painted.