LINDA SÁNCHEZ PINTOR

(Bayamón, Puerto Rico, 1970)

Flowers for Juana II, 2006

Oil on canvas

MAB’s permanent collection

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The flower referenced in this piece is the heliconia (also known as the bird of paradise), whose name originates from Mount Helicon in Greece, a place considered to be the home of the muses and goddesses of the arts and sciences. In both Greek and Roman mythology, flowers were used in their festivals, to decorate their heads and cover their dead with them. Those with orange and yellow have an allusion to the sun (Cirlot, 1997). They are also considered an archetypal image of the soul (Teillard, 1951).