Her solitary presence on a cracked and barren landscape symbolizes both her isolation[2] and the external forces which have impacted her life.

[4] In the painting Kahlo's nude torso is split, replicating the ravine-laced earth behind her and revealing a crumbling, Ionic column in place of her spine.

[5][8][9] One can draw a parallel from Kahlo’s portrayal of herself to that of the “Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian.”[10] In Sebastian's legend, he was discovered to be a Christian and tied to a tree and used as an archery target.

The American poet Bruce Bond writes, “pain is an arrow that pins a body to the bone” in a 2013 poem named after the Saint.

Desmond O’Neill, a physician writing for the British Medical Journal, describes Frida’s work as a vital tool in the understanding of pain in patients.