House of Montefeltro

Description

In Purgatory, Buonconte declares his own origin with the solemn formula 'Io fui di Montefeltro, io son Bonconte.' He is the son of Count Guido, the Ghibelline condottiero whom Dante places among the fraudulent counselors. Buonconte, trained in war by his father, in part retraces his footsteps: in 1287 he helped drive the Guelphs out of Arezzo, in 1288 he led the ambush of Pieve al Toppo against the Sienese, and he finally died among the Ghibelline captains at the Battle of Campaldino in 1289. His story unfolds as the exact opposite, almost mirror image, of his father's: the tears of the son, who in death folds his arms crossing them over himself, are matched by the closed and impenitent rancor of the father, and his salvation is meant, perhaps, as a consolatory counterpoint to that perdition.