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Dimensions: height: 38cm., 15in.
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Provenance: Clotilde Longoni Rosso, Milan (the artist's daughter-in-law)
Peridot Gallery, New York (acquired by 1959)
Acquired from the above by the family of the present owner in 1968
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Exhibited: New York, Peridot Gallery, The First Exhibition in America of Sculpture by Medardo Rosso, 1959-60, no. 3, illustrated in the catalogue
Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum, Salute to Italy: 100 Years of Italian Art, 1961, illustrated in the catalogue
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Literature: Mino Borghi, Medardo Rosso, Milan, 1950, nos. 14 & 15, illustrations of another example
Hilton Kramer, "The Recovery of Medardo Rosso", in Arts, December 1959, illustrated
"Rediscovery of a Forgotten Master", in Life International, 9th May 1960, illustrated
Margaret Scolari Barr, Medardo Rosso, New York, 1963, illustration of another example p. 27
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Notes: Margaret Scolari Barr discusses the importance of Rosso's L'Eta d'oro: "At last with Golden Age, 1886 he hit his stride again. The two tightly intermingled heads represent his wife and son. The young mother kisses the baby so hard that her nose and mouth blend into his cheek and chin. His mouth is wide open, his eyes somewhat contracted but not closed [...] The psychological implications are ambiguous because it is hard to understand whether, as one critic has suggested, the child is frightened by the violence and compression of the mother's embrace or whether her enveloping contact is comforting him after a long spell of weeping" (M. Scolari Barr, op. cit., pp. 27-28).
The artist himself certainly held this work in high esteem, as he chose L'Eta d'oro, together with several other sculptures, as his most advanced works for inclusion in the Second International Exhibition in Venice in 1887, which was later to become the Venice Biennale.
