The Death of Count Ugolino della Gherardesca and His Sons (Inferno Canto XXXIII) (c. 1550): Art, History and Details

The Death of Count Ugolino della Gherardesca and His Sons (Inferno Canto XXXIII) (c. 1550) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Pierino da Vinci (Italian, 1530–1553).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: The Death of Count Ugolino della Gherardesca and His Sons (Inferno Canto XXXIII)
• Date: c. 1550
• Creator attribution: Pierino da Vinci (Italian, 1530–1553)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: Terracotta
• Dimensions: Overall: 62.6 x 44.5 cm (24 5/8 x 17 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Sculpture
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 2024.1

A detail from the museum

Leonardo da Vinci’s nephew Pierino was considered the heir to his uncle’s artistic genius.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Vasari, Giorgio. Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, translated by Gaston du C. De Vere, Vol. 7. London, 1912-1914. pp. 39-52.
• Yates, F. "Transformations of Dante's Ugolino." Journal of the Warburg and Courtault Institutes, XIV (1951): 104 and 106.
• Quinterio, F. “Inventario dei beni dei conti della Gherardesca (secc. XVII e XVIII)." La casa del cancelliere. Documenti e studi sul palazzo di Bartolomeo Scala a Firenze, edited by Anna Bellinazzi, 87 and 89. Florence: Edifir, Firenze; 1989.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.