Unforgettable Childhood by Claudia Giraudo

May 28, 2018 – June 30, 2018
Palazzo San Rocco, Via San Biagio 31 #Matera

Children have often been the protagonists of novels, poems and plays; but they have also been widely represented subjects throughout the history of art.
Over centuries, great artists have created masterpieces that have left an indelible mark and a testament to the condition of the child, from portraits of noble families to the frescoes of children in the fields, from play to poverty, from denied childhood to privilege, from lessons in art and music to the most tiring and humble labor.
From the bas-relief at the Ara Pacis of Augustus in Rome, which represents a child clinging to his father but whose affection is all turned to his mother who caresses him and watches him lovingly, to the Gospel episode of the massacre of the innocents painted by Duccio di Buoninsegna; in the middle ages the figure of the child was replaced by that of Jesus; in the Renaissance the portraits of the family children start appearing; to the twentieth century, a very lively century that also saw the birth of photography.

There is the famous photograph by Diane Arbus “Child with Toy Hand Grenade” which represents a child with an alienated stare who is holding a toy hand grenade in one hand
while the other hand simulates a claw.
Art has given us a cross-section of childhood and adolescence that can be compared to a sociological and anthropological treatise. Here we have chosen a selection of works that are an emotional testimony of the experience of childhood and seek to amplify a subject that elicits the most tenderness in the collective imagination but who is run over by a nefarious fate.
In this exhibition Italian and Israeli artists dialogue together on the theme of childhood.