Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, CC0 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Ugolino and His Sons
by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, 1865
Artwork Details
Details
- Year
- 1865
- Medium
- Saint-Béat marble
- Size
- Overall (confirmed): 77 3/4 × 59 × 43 1/2 in., 4955 lb. (197.5 × 149.9 × 110.5 cm, 2247.6 kg); Pedestal (wt. confirmed): 3759 lb. (1705.1 kg)
Cite or Embed This Work
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Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux carved this marble group between 1865 and 1867. It depicts a scene from Canto XXXIII of Dante's Inferno: Count Ugolino della Gherardesca, a 13th-century Pisan nobleman, imprisoned with his sons and grandsons in a tower and left to starve. Carpeaux captures the moment Ugolino contemplates cannibalism.
The composition draws directly from Michelangelo's figures in the Last Judgment and from the ancient Laocoön group in the Vatican. Carpeaux won the Prix de Rome in 1854 and began the Ugolino subject while studying at the French Academy in Rome. This marble version was carved for the owner of the Saint-Béat quarry, specifically for display at the 1867 International Exposition in Paris.
The total weight exceeds 4,955 pounds. It's one of the largest single sculptures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it dominates the European Sculpture Court.
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About Ugolino and His Sons
It's in the European Sculpture Court at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The marble group weighs nearly 5,000 pounds and is one of the largest sculptures in the Met's collection.
A scene from Dante's Inferno (Canto XXXIII). Count Ugolino was locked in a tower with his sons and grandsons by the Archbishop of Pisa and left to starve. The sculpture shows the moment he considers eating his own children. Dante placed Ugolino in the lowest circle of Hell.
The marble group stands 197.5 cm (about 6 feet 6 inches) tall and weighs 4,955 pounds. The pedestal alone weighs 3,759 pounds. Carpeaux carved it from Saint-Béat marble between 1865 and 1867 for the 1867 Paris International Exposition.
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