I saw an amazing 3 D Model of this famous statue on cgtalk.com.
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=813101&utm_medium=plugblock&utm_source=cgtalk
It got me interested in reading more about this and that led me to wikipedia where I found some really interesting facts and myths about this statue. The story is that after being accused of treason, his illegitimate son was killed, Ugolino himself - together with his sons Gaddo and Uguccione and his grand-sons Nino (surnamed "the Brigand") and Anselmuccio were detained in the Muda, a tower belonging to the Gualandi family. There, they died of starvation. The myths and poetry associated with this dire tragedy is what truely makes this story interesting. Enjoy reading!
The following is excerpt from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugolino_della_Gherardesca
Ugolino della Gherardesca (c. 1220 – March 1289), count of Donoratico, was an Italian nobleman, politician and naval commander. He was frequently accused of treason and features prominently in Dante's Divine Comedy.
Literary afterlife
The historic details of the episode are still involved in some obscurity, and although mentioned by Villani and other writers, it owes its fame entirely to Dante's Divine Comedy. Dante's account has been paraphrased by Chaucer in the Monk's Tale of the Canterbury Tales, as well as by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Irish poet Seamus Heaney also recounts the legend in his poem "Ugolino" found in his 1979 book Field Work.
Ugolino in Dante's Inferno
Dante placed Ugolino and Ruggieri in the ice of the second ring (Antenora) of the lowest circle of the Inferno, which is reserved for betrayers of kin, country, guests, and benefactors.
Ugolino’s punishment involves his being entrapped in ice up to his neck in the same hole with his betrayer, Archbishop Ruggieri, who left him to starve to death. Ugolino is constantly gnawing at Ruggieri's skull. As Dante describes it,
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Ugolino's gnawing of Ruggieri's head has been interpreted as meaning that Ugolino's hatred for his enemy is so strong that he is compelled to "devour even what has no substance".[4] Ugolino, though punished for his betrayal of his people, is allowed some closure for the betrayal that he himself was forced to suffer under Ruggieri, when he is allowed to act as Ruggieri's torturer for eternity. According to Frances Yates, both are "suffering the torments of the damned in the traitors' hell; but Ugolino is given the right to oppress ... Archbishop Ruggieri with a ghastly eternal punishment which fits his crime."[5] Ruggieri forced Ugolino and his heirs to starve to death, so in effect, he is to serve as food for Ugolino, for eternity. At the same time, however, Ugolino is actually unable to consume Ruggieri: being dead, Ruggieri has no body, and Ugolino is thus condemned to spend eternity in endless starvation.
Ugolino and his children
According to Dante, the prisoners were slowly starved to death and before dying Ugolino's children begged him to eat their bodies.
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Ugolino's statement that hunger proved stronger than grief, has been interpreted in two ways, either that Ugolino devoured his offspring's corpses after being driven mad with hunger, or that starvation killed him after he had failed to die of grief. The first and more ghastly of these interpretations has proved the more popular and resonant. For this reason Ugolino is known as the "Cannibal Count" and is often depicted gnawing at his own fingers ("eating of his own flesh") in consternation, as in the sculpture The Gates of Hell by Auguste Rodin, in Ugolino and his Sons by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux and in other artwork, though this may also simply refer to Ugolino's own statement in the poem that he gnawed his fingers in grief.
Ugolino is referred to in José Saramago's novel The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, in which the protagonist opines that suitable name for a foxhound bitch that has been found eating its own young from two different litters, would be Ugolina, mentioning the History of the Guelphs and Ghibellines and the Divine Comedy as references to Ugolino della Gherardesca's having eaten his children and grandchildren.[6]
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