Ugolino and His Sons
ArtistStudio of
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
(French, 1827-1875)
CultureFrench
Dateca. 1870
MediumBronze
DimensionsOverall: 19 in. (48.3 cm)
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.2066
Collections
Not on view
DescriptionThis is a small bronze piece. It features four boys and a man: at the apex sits Ugolino overwhelmed by despair as his children and grandchildren expire at his feet. The figures are intensely suffering: the father is seated, with his sons surrounding, which creates an imposing pyramid of five tightly interlocking figures.Label TextStudio of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux French, 1827–1875 Ugolino and His Sons, ca. 1870 Bronze From madness and murder to torture and even cannibalism, the Romantics reveled in the macabre and taboo. Inspired by a story in Dante’s Inferno, this sculpture recounts the tale of the Italian nobleman Ugolino de’Gherardeschi, who was imprisoned for betrayal and starved to death with his sons and grandsons. As his children died around him, they begged him to eat their bodies so he might live. Ugolino eventually gave in to his hunger and devoured their bodies. This sculpture compresses the horror of Dante’s narrative into a pyramid of five tightly interlocking figures. At the apex, the overwrought Ugolino gnaws on his hands. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler Jr. 71.2066 ProvenanceWalter P. Chrysler, Jr.; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to the Chrysler Museum, 1971. Exhibition History"Metamorphoses in Nineteenth-Century Sculpture," exhibition, November 19, 1975 - January 7, 1976. (Exhib. cat. p. 123). "The Romantics to Rodin: French 19th Century Sculpture from American Collections," Los Angeles Co. Museum of Art, Feb. 28, 1980 - May 25, 1980; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, June - Sept., 1980; Detroit Institute of Arts, Oct. - Jan. 1981; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Feb. - Apr. 29, 1981. (Exhib. cat. no. 32). "Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008. Published ReferencesEdited by Jeanne L. Wasserman. _Metamorphoses in Nineteenth-Century Sculpture_. Cambridge, Mass.: Fogg Art Museum, distributed by Harvard University Press. 1975. No. 15, p. 123. Chrysler Museum. _Selections from the Permanent Collection: The Chrysler Museum_. Norfolk, VA: Chrysler Museum of Art. 1982: p. 56. Jefferson C. Harrison. "Nineteenth-Century French Art - Part I," _The Chrysler Museum Gallery Guide_. Norfolk, VA: Chrysler Museum. 1985: p. 5, no. 10. Jefferson C. Harrison. _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings_. The Chrysler Museum. 1991: p. 117, # 92. Exhibition catalog. _The Romantics to Rodin: French Nineteenth-Century Sculpture from North American Collections_. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, et al. 1980. No. 32.
