The painting portrays the encounter between Dante and Virgil and Ugolino della Gherardesca, the Count of Donoratico, a 13th-century historic character who lived in Pisa. A Ghibelline who defended the Guelphs, Ugolino was locked up in a tower with his sons by the archbishop of Pisa, Ruggieri degli Ubaldini, later starved there. Dante placed him in Antenora, the second zone of the ninth circle of hell, among the traitors of the homeland. Trapped in the frozen waters of Lake Cocytus, Ugolino is condemned to gnaw on the head Archbishop Ruggieri without ever becoming satiated. In the 18th and 19th centuries, this episode was one of the most frequently depicted scenes from the Inferno, both for its blood-curdling content as well as for the political themes linked to patriotic dishonour.