Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux - Ugolino


Ugolino and His Sons (detail)
"Carpeaux found inspiration in Canto XXXIII of Dante's Divine Comedy which describes the encounter in Hell between the writer, led by Virgil, and Ugolino della Gherardesca. The count recounts the punishment he has suffered. In 13th-century Pisa, having betrayed the party of the Gibelins who favoured the Emperor in his struggle against the Pope, who was supported by the Guelfes, Ugolino was imprisoned in a tower. His rival, the archbishop Ubaldini, condemned him to starve to death in gaol. According to legend, Ugolino died after eating his own sons and grandsons who shared his cell."
Musée d'Orsay
Yale Press: The Passions of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
W - Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux

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