feet, and the Christ Child holds a tiny Colombian flag. National flags make their appearance in many other works by the artist, and there are numerous instances in which the national colors are introduced in more subtle ways. In the 1989 Man with a Dog, for example, the sitter stands within the courtyard of a colonial house of the type that could easily be seen in any village or town in Colombia - or in the colonial district of Bogota known as La Candelaria. Its tiled roof, green woodwork and banana trees instantly locate us within a specific ambience. Yet when we further observe the man's clothing, we realize that his shirt and tie echo the red, yellow and blue of the Colombian flag. In the 1983 painting entitled La Colombiana (Colombiana Woman), a woman in a yellow dress stands just inside the door of a house which could also be located anywhere in the country. Her voluminous red hair is piled high on her head. Hands with perfectly manicured nails painted red hold a cigarette and a cigarette box, seemingly offering one to the viewer. Over her left ear there is a tiny bow which also bears the red, yellow and blue colors. While not creating individualized portraits, the artist is instead fashioning a picture of a national - or a national 'type' - which is as alive in his imagination and as representative of Colombia as any famous political, artistic or literary superstar. Even in his images of significant historical individuals as well as in his artistic paraphrases, Botero will include seemingly incongruous references to Colombia. In the 1990 canvases of Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI , the eighteenth-century French monarchs stand outside a house on a typical Colombian village street. A tiny green bird perches on the hand of Marie Antoinette, and both of the rulers are flanked by Colombian flags, which also serve to frame the scene, and suggest that the pictures might represent theatrical performances. It is, however, the timeless a...
