Ugolino and His Sons

Ugolino’s body folds inward while the children press around him. Bent limbs, reaching hands and tense faces leave little empty space in the group. The French sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux used these closely connected bodies to give physical form to a terrible story. The subject comes from Dante’s Inferno, the medieval poem in which the author travels through Hell. Count Ugolino recounts how he was imprisoned with his sons and grandsons and how they died of starvation. The scene can be distressing, especially for younger visitors. Carpeaux made this marble version in 1865–67. His study of anatomy gives each twisting body a convincing weight. His admiration for Michelangelo, particularly the figures in the Sistine Chapel’s Last Judgment, helped shape the group’s muscular intensity. Look at one child’s position, then follow the contact between that body and Ugolino’s. A child’s hand reaches toward the father while other bodies press against his legs. From a little farther back, their separate gestures gather around the father’s closed, troubled pose.