Covered Container

Kahlo kept gourd containers similar to this one on her dining room table and on various shelves at the Blue House. Characteristic of the lacquerware produced by artisans in the village of Olinalá, in Guerrero, it is carved in the rayado (incised) technique, which begins with the application of two coats of lacquer in contrasting colors. The designs are drawn with a pointed instrument, and the background is then cut away. The elaborate decoration includes not only local flora and fauna, but male and female figures flanking the Aztec goddess Coyolxauhqui. One of the women may be Malinche, the conquistador Hernán Cortés’s Nahuatl interpreter.