by Christa Wojciechowski
The name of this statue is El Fauno y La Bacante.
It was sculpted from marble in 1919 by Luis Veloz who had studied in Italy.
As you can imagine in those days, the sculpture created quite a scandal.
The allegory, according to the Enciclopedia de Ecuador, is that desires should not be repressed, but integrated wisely and transcended in life.
The young girl represents the human soul that is closing its eyes to the light of thought while being enfolded in a world of desire, which is represented by the faun.
So what do you think?
Can we get past our vices by repressing them?
Or must we embrace them in order to move past them and grow?

