Figurine - Bambino - Bronze, Marble

The work depicted is the celebrated sculpture titled "The First Cry" (also known as Baby with a Pacifier or The Infant’s Cry), created by Sicilian sculptor Bernardo Balestrieri (Palermo, 1884 – 1965).
Details and Work Information
Author: Bernardo Balestrieri (his signature is clearly visible on the back of the bronze, identifiable in the detail shown in the second photo).
Title: The First Cry (or Head of a Crying Child).
Period: First half of the 20th century (approximately the 1920s–1930s).
Technique and Material: Cast bronze (or darkened metal) on a marble base.
Subject and Style: The sculpture portrays, with great expressive force, a close-up view of a newborn’s face caught in the midst of an intense cry, eyes tightly shut and mouth wide open. A period pacifier hangs from the child’s neck on a cord.
Artist Profile
Bernardo Balestrieri trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo. His artistic practice belongs to the tradition of Southern Italian sculptural realism of the early 20th century: he favored dramatic, vivid, and emotive depictions of ordinary people and children, capturing his subjects’ spontaneous expressiveness through fluid, vibrant modeling.