The Death of Ugolin

Information

Dufau opened the Exhibition of Year VIII (1800) with this canvas.  A pupil of David, here he translates a classical formula into a theme drawn from Dante:  in 1288 the Count Ugolin, leader of the Gibelins at Pisa, was walled up in the tour of Gualandi with his two sons and two grandsons by the Archbishop of Pisa.  Dufau retains the heroic dimension of this macabre tale; the pyramidal and frontal composition of the figures, which stand out against a bare backdrop of stone, is directly borrowed from his master.  Their sculptural aspect and marble-like whiteness, emphasised by glaring light, along with the icy tones of the draperies, increase the scene’s dramatic intensity.