Symbolist school; end of the 19th century.

Symbolist school; late nineteenth century.
"Bust of Virgin".
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 35 x 27 cm.
Portrait of the bust of a young woman who is presented in profile to the viewer, completely oblivious to his gaze. The lady closes her eyes and half-opens her lips in a gesture of great mysticism. A feature that is enhanced by the play of light proposed by the artist, as the face of the protagonist is in semi-darkness although the light falls on the scene through the upper right area. This play of light and shadow brings a great subtlety to the qualities of the fabrics, creating an effect of great delicacy in the folds and slight ornaments of the fabric that covers the hair of the young woman. It is precisely this mantle that invites us to think of the figure of the Virgin, despite the fact that the girl is not portrayed with any specific attribute that defines her.
Aesthetically the work is framed within the symbolist current that, starting from literature, defined a fully metaphorical art, which sought to evoke hidden meanings through an elaborate rhetoric. The symbolists believed that art should aim to capture the most absolute truths, which could only be captured by indirect and ambiguous methods, hence the constant reference to symbol and metaphor. In the case of this canvas, the absolute center of the representation is its poetic content, captured through a beautiful woman.