Rosso, Medardo

Rosso, Medardo (mādär`dō rôs`sō), 1858–1928, Italian sculptor. A painter until 1883, he turned to sculpture and worked periodically in Paris but lived mainly in Milan. He was a friend of Degas and Rodin, but he quarreled with the latter in 1898 about which of them had introduced impressionism into sculpture. Rosso showed brilliance in his ability to capture the play of light on a surface. He preferred to work in wax, since the material lends itself to effects of suppleness and fluidity. A characteristic portrait is his Bimbo ebreo (Univ. of Nebraska). In Barzio the Rosso Museum houses much of his work.