The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 16, 2026

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

c. 1550

Pierino da Vinci

(Italian, 1530–1553)
Italy
Terracotta
Overall: 62.6 x 44.5 cm (24 5/8 x 17 1/2 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 2024.1
Location: 118 Italian Renaissance

Did You Know?

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

Description

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.
  • della Gherardesca collection (Florence, Italy) and Antinori collection (Florence, Italy / Saanen, Switzerland), by descent and through marriage, c. 1550-2000/2002
    Alain Moatti (Saanen, Switzerland and Paris, France), 2000/2002-2005
    Private Collection (Morges, Switzerland), 2005-2023
    Stuart Lochhead (London, United Kingdom), 2023-2024
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 2024
  • 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.
    Penny, Nicholas. "Ugolino, imprisoned by the Arno, with his sons and grandsons, visited by Famine." Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, 1540 to the Present Day, 96. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992.
    Avery, C. "Pierino da Vinci’s ‘lost’ bronze relief of The Death by Starvation of Count Ugolino della Gherardesca and his Sons rediscovered at Chatsworth." Pierino da Vinci: atti della giornata di studio, edited by Marco Cianchi, 57-61. Florence: Becocci, Firenze, 1995.
    Parronchi, A. "Alcuni inediti." Pierino da Vinci: atti della giornata di studio, edited by Marco Cianchi, 32. Florence: Becocci, Firenze, 1995.
    Kusch-Arnhold, B. Pierino da Vinci. Münster: Rhema, 2008. pp. 51-70, 137-138.
    Poggi, Giovanni. Mostra del cinquecento toscano: in Palazzo Strozzi, 65. Florence: Marzocco, 1940.
    Croce rossa italiana di Firenze and Giorgio Batini. Mostra dei tesori segreti delle case fiorentine, 70-71, cat. 172. Florence: Circolo borghese della stampa, 1960.
    Esposizione europea di arte, scienza e cultura. Palazzo Vecchio: Committenza e collezionismo medicei, catalogo della mostra, 323, cat. 659. Florence: Electa, 1980.
    Corsi, S.; Sisi, C.; Casa Buonarroti. Michelangelo nell'ottocento. Il Centenario del 1875, 58-60, cat. 47. Milan: Charta, 1994.
    Franklin, D.; Waldman, L.; Butterfield, A. Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and the Renaissance in Florence, 290-291, cat. 105. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.
    Shearman, John. "Mannerism in the History of Art." Mannerism. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd, 1967. p. 186.
    Lafore, Alexandrew. “A terracotta by Pierino da Vinci for Cleveland.” La Tribune de l'Art. April 13, 2024. www.latribunedelart.com
  • Mostra del Cinquecento toscano. Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy (1940).
    Mostra dei tesori segreti delle case fiorentine. Circolo borghese della stampa, Florence, Italy (1960).
    Palazzo Vecchio: Committenza e collezionismo medicei. Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy (1980).
    Michelangelo nell'ottocento: Il Centenario del 1875. Casa Buonarotti, Florence, Italy (1994).
    Leonardo, Michelangelo & The Renaissance in Florence. National Gallery, Ottawa, Canada (2005).
  • {{cite web|title=The Death of Count Ugolino della Gherardesca and His Sons (Inferno Canto XXXIII)|url=false|author=Pierino da Vinci|year=c. 1550|access-date=16 March 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2024.1