rome italyhellenistic
Laocoön and His Sons
Marble sculptural group (c. 40–30 BCE or earlier Hellenistic original) depicting the Trojan priest Laocoön and his two sons being strangled by sea serpents. Attributed by Pliny the Elder to three Rhodian sculptors: Agesander, Athenodoros, and Polydoros. Held at the Vatican Museums.
Scholarly Significance
Anchor the Hellenistic sculpture cluster with the Laocoön group, the defining monument of Hellenistic dramatic style and one of the most influential works in Western art history.
Notes
- ·Discovered on 14 January 1506 in a vineyard on the Esquiline Hill, Rome, near the ruins of Titus's palace (Domus Aurea / Baths of Trajan complex).
- ·Pliny the Elder (Natural History, XXXVI.37) described the Laocoön as 'a work superior to any painting and any bronze' and named the sculptors as Hagesandros, Polydoros, and Athenodoros of Rhodes.
- ·The dating remains debated: Pliny's text implies a single-block carving, but the group is made of multiple marble pieces. Scholars debate whether it is a 1st century BCE original or a 1st century CE Roman copy of a bronze Hellenistic original.
- ·The lost right arm of Laocoön was the subject of a famous Renaissance dispute; Michelangelo's suggested restoration (arm raised above head) was initially rejected in favour of a bent-back arm. The original marble arm fragment was discovered in 1906 by Ludwig Pollak and confirmed Michelangelo's original interpretation.
- ·Enormously influential in the Renaissance: its rediscovery was a transformative event for Michelangelo, Raphael, and subsequent generations. G.E. Lessing's 1766 essay 'Laokoön' used the group as the basis for a theory of the limits of visual art.
- ·Depicts the punishment of the Trojan priest Laocoön, who warned the Trojans against accepting the wooden horse. Athena (or Poseidon, in alternate versions) sent sea serpents to kill him and his sons.
- ·Napoleon took the Laocoön to Paris in 1798; it was returned to the Vatican in 1816.