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See the original at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
Ugolino and His Sons
by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, 1865
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)
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.
