Art, Symbol & Imagination
Ugolino Alone with the Dead
A bearded man bends over several motionless younger bodies on the floor of a dark room lit through a barred window. The caption belongs to the conclusion of Ugolino’s recollection, where grief and fasting contend after the children die. Doré uses the low bodies and the survivor’s bent posture to make the chamber almost entirely a space of loss. The high light cannot provide an exit. This is an illustration of the poem’s narrated memory, not a verified record of the prisoners’ last moments. The ambiguous final wording does not justify describing the picture as evidence that Ugolino ate the bodies.
Read the source pageLoading your collection…
Citation
Gustave Doré (design). "Ugolino Alone with the Dead" [editorial title]. In Dante's Inferno, Dante Alighieri. New Edition, undated supplied scan, undated edition, Thompson & Thomas. Source scan leaf 232. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/inferno-dore-225
Source details
Editorial title and description. Source details from the Library catalogue.
Full original plate and caption individually inspected; neighbouring canto read. Editorial title. Source tone and intrinsic damage retained; rotation applies only to Gallery derivatives.
Sources
From the book
Dante's InfernoDante AlighieriUndated editionMore from this book
All 76 illustrations
Related illustrations
Cite this illustration
Gustave Doré (design). Ugolino Alone with the Dead. Dante's Inferno. Scan leaf 232. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/inferno-dore-225