The Golden Age (Aetas aurea) by Medardo Rosso

The Golden Age (Aetas aurea) c. 1886s - 1896s

bronze, sculpture

portrait

17_20th-century

fluid shape

3d sculpting

woman

head

sculpture

bronze

charcoal drawing

sculptural image

unrealistic statue

child

sculpting

sculpture

charcoal

graphite

statue

Medardo Rosso's bronze sculpture "The Golden Age" (Aetas aurea), created between 1886 and 1896, is a poignant depiction of two figures, possibly mother and child, embracing. The rough, unfinished surface and fragmented forms are characteristic of Rosso's style, which aimed to capture the fleeting nature of life and emotion. The work's intimate scale and expressive gesture invite viewers to consider the vulnerability and fragility of human connection. "The Golden Age" is now part of the collection at the Städel Museum, Frankfurt.

Comments

stadelmuseum over 1 year ago

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The sculpture is a fragmentary depiction of a tender touch between mother and child. The shadowy modelling of the surface and the fusion of the figures with their surroundings lend the sculpture a noticeably ethereal effect. Although the work shows the wife and son of the artist, the title points towards a more universal significance: 'The Golden Age' describes the ideal original state of humankind, a utopia of perfect happiness. Rosso's work can be located between Impressionism and Symbolism for its exploratory treatment of light and surface and the simultaneous interplay between atmospheric ephemerality and earthly presence.