Description

The artist selected for this allegory of La Juventud (Youth) is Sydeu. This delightful young girl appears stretching upward, as if growing in Nature, her flowing dress accentuating her slim figure. She appears to grow out of the rock that serves as a plinth, where we find inscribed the artist’s name and the title of the work, the maker’s stamp, and the series number (2116/15/47).

The increasingly popular use of symbolism toward the end of the 19th C. presents the female figure, per se, as an allegory of youth. The fabric of her dress appears not to drape, but, rather, to grow out of the rock and climb upward to fit her feminine form – born of Nature itself. In her hand is an iris, the same flower that adorns her head, and her long, flowing hair blends with the sleeves of her dress. The form of the garment hints at the shape of a butterfly, symbol of Liberty.

This piece forms part of the University collection thanks to the donation of María Julia Castillo López to the Fundación de San Francisco Javier y Santa Cándida, which placed several items in the care of the University in 1984. These include numerous pieces of furniture and other objects (such as Muchacha Tocando la Cítara and Muchacha Tocando el Violín), some of which are kept at the Rectorate and others in the Faculty of Medicine.