Better known as 'laminae' in Mexico, retablos are small oil paintings on tin, wood and sometimes copper that were used in home altars to venerate the almost infinite number of Catholic Saints. The literal translation of "retablo" is "behind the altar". (FRIDA KAHLO- 20) Many of Frida's self-portraits, such as Thinking about Death (1943) usually featured this folk art style of retablos. Thinking about Death not only formally includes a Mexican artistic style, but also represents Mexican iconography. Upon viewing, the painting shows Frida against a backdrop of green and yellow leaves accompanied by thorny branches that appear to engulf her, while death is symbolized by a skull and crossbones in a roundel on her forehead. In many of Frida Kahlo's works, plants are used to symbolize life as an eternal cycle of nature. One part of this life cycle, represented in Aztec mythology by the goddess Coatlicue, is essentially death. (FRIDA KAHLO 72) Thus, in the ancient Mexican sense, death simultaneously means rebirth and life. In this self-portrait, death is presented against the thorny branches, a symbol taken from pre-Hispanic mythology through which Kahlo alludes to the rebirth that follows death. Because death is understood as a path or transition towards