Ugolino nella torre (Ugolino in the tower) was one of the most frequently depicted Dantean subjects of the nineteenth century.
Diotti's interest in that episode of the Divine Comedy probably dated back to his youthful frequentation of avant-garde circles in Rome, where the cult of the great poet had experienced a rapid rise thanks to the experimental research of Nordic artists such as Füssli, Carstens, Köck, shared with Felice Giani, Giuseppe Bossi, Pelagio Palagi.
He made a first version (now lost) in 1817 for his friend Giovanni Montani of Casalmaggiore, but it was then a commission from the Brescian Count Paolo Tosio that allowed Diotti to return to the subject in 1831, with a work destined to emotionally involve the viewer with its content of pity and pain, yet aligned with the style of the classical tradition, as requested by the client.
The splendid painting, from which Cesare Ferreri made this engraving in 1835, is today exhibited in Palazzo Tosio in Brescia, seat of the University of Sciences, Letters and Arts, while a preparatory version is kept in the Pinacoteca of Cremona.
