Cleveland Museum of Art

The Death of Count Ugolino della Gherardesca and His Sons (Inferno Canto XXXIII)

Pierino da Vinci

Date: c. 1550
Medium: Terracotta
Culture: Italy
Department: European Painting and Sculpture
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art

Pierino da Vinci's dramatic relief depicts a scene from a poem that was based on an actual historical event. In 1289, following a political coup in Pisa, Italy, Count Ugolino and his sons were imprisoned in a tower and left to starve; their tragic tale inspired Dante Alighieri, who featured Ugolino in the Divine Comedy , an epic narrative tracing Dante’s imagined journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven. Pierino reimagined the story, placing the despondent figures along the banks of the Pisan river and adding a monstrous flying character representing hunger. Leonardo da Vinci’s nephew Pierino was considered the heir to his uncle’s artistic genius.

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