Vatican Museums

The splendid wax sculpture Aetas Aurea is one of the three versions that Medardo Rosso dedicated to the double portrait of his wife Giuditta Pozzi with their son Francesco. The work recalls in its composition the previous Amor Materno of 1883, the year in which the artist began to sculpt in wax, the use of this medium was unprecedented in Italy.
In this work he again explored the theme of the mother kissing her baby, but instead of creating a sculpture in the round, he chose to model only the front surface, neglecting the back and concentrating on the effects of light on the surfaces. The two faces are depicted as blending into one another, accentuating the intensity of the relationship between mother and son. The composition along a diagonal axis lends the image a dynamism that inspires the contact between the two figures with a vital and strangely unstable atmosphere.