MADRID — St. Anne, the patron saint of the village of Rañadorio in northwestern Spain, has fuchsia lips, black eyeliner and a bright dress. The Virgin Mary has turquoise hair. Baby Jesus resembles a Playmobil figure.

The figures, part of a set of 15th-century wooden statues in a chapel in the Asturias region, had recently drawn the attention of a local shopkeeper, who decided they looked “horrible” and needed to be repainted.

“I’m not a professional painter, but I’ve always enjoyed it, and these images really were in need of painting,” the shopkeeper, María Luisa Menéndez, told the newspaper El Comercio, adding that the local clergy had given her permission to proceed. “So I painted them the best I could, with the colors that seemed right, and the neighbors like it.”

Local news outlets did, indeed, quote residents defending the restoration. But that reaction to the handling of religious artifacts was hardly universal.