The Golden Age (Aetas aurea), 1886 (casting ca. 1905)

About the Work

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.