Ugolino and His Sons

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux French

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 548

The subject of this intensely Romantic work is derived from canto XXXIII of Dante's Inferno, which describes how the Pisan traitor Count Ugolino della Gherardesca, his sons, and his grandsons were imprisoned in 1288 and died of starvation. Carpeaux's visionary statue, executed in 1865–67, reflects the artist's passionate reverence for Michelangelo, specifically for The Last Judgment (1536–41) in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican, Rome, as well as his own painstaking concern with anatomical realism.

#90. Body Language: Curator, Theater Director, and Educator: Ugolino and His Sons

0:00
0:00
View Transcript
Ugolino and His Sons, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (French, Valenciennes 1827–1875 Courbevoie), Saint-Béat marble, French, Paris

This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

API

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.

View 1

Ugolino and His Sons, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (French, Valenciennes 1827–1875 Courbevoie), Saint-Béat marble, French, Paris
Ugolino and His Sons, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (French, Valenciennes 1827–1875 Courbevoie), Saint-Béat marble, French, Paris
Ugolino and His Sons, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (French, Valenciennes 1827–1875 Courbevoie), Saint-Béat marble, French, Paris
Ugolino and His Sons, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (French, Valenciennes 1827–1875 Courbevoie), Saint-Béat marble, French, Paris
Ugolino and His Sons, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (French, Valenciennes 1827–1875 Courbevoie), Saint-Béat marble, French, Paris
Ugolino and His Sons, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (French, Valenciennes 1827–1875 Courbevoie), Saint-Béat marble, French, Paris
Ugolino and His Sons, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (French, Valenciennes 1827–1875 Courbevoie), Saint-Béat marble, French, Paris
Ugolino and His Sons, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (French, Valenciennes 1827–1875 Courbevoie), Saint-Béat marble, French, Paris
Ugolino and His Sons, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (French, Valenciennes 1827–1875 Courbevoie), Saint-Béat marble, French, Paris

This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.