Scribd
Upload
162 views2 pages

Laocoon and His Son

The document summarizes the Laocoon Group, a famous Greek sculpture depicting Laocoon and his sons being attacked by snakes. It was discovered in 1506 in Rome and placed in the Vatican Museums where it became hugely influential on Renaissance art. The sculpture is considered one of the greatest works of Hellenistic art from the 2nd century BCE and is attributed to three sculptors from Rhodes based on an inscription. Fragments discovered in 1957 linking it stylistically to the Laocoon Group helped confirm its origin and date.

Uploaded by

Kenneth Marcial Ege II
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
162 views2 pages

Laocoon and His Son

The document summarizes the Laocoon Group, a famous Greek sculpture depicting Laocoon and his sons being attacked by snakes. It was discovered in 1506 in Rome and placed in the Vatican Museums where it became hugely influential on Renaissance art. The sculpture is considered one of the greatest works of Hellenistic art from the 2nd century BCE and is attributed to three sculptors from Rhodes based on an inscription. Fragments discovered in 1957 linking it stylistically to the Laocoon Group helped confirm its origin and date.

Uploaded by

Kenneth Marcial Ege II
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

EGE, KENNETH M.

BSA22A1

LAOCOON AND HIS SONS


An icon of Hellenistic art, the figurative Greek sculpture known as the Laocoon Group, or Laocoon and
His Sons, is a monumental statue which is on display at the Museo Pio Clementino, in the Vatican
Museums, Rome. It is a marble copy of a bronze sculpture, which - according to the Roman writer Pliny
the Elder (23-79 CE) - depicted the Trojan priest Laocoon and his two sons Antiphas and Thymbraeus
being killed by giant snakes, as described by the Roman poet Virgil (70 BCE - 19 CE) in his epic poem the
Aeneid. The statue, which was seen and revered by Pliny the Elder in the palace of Titus Flavius
Vespasianus (39-81 CE), the future Roman Emperor Titus (ruled 79-81), was attributed by Pliny to three
sculptors from the Greek island of Rhodes: Hagesander, Athenodoros and Polydorus. This attribution
coincides with an inscription on a fragment from other similar marbles discovered separately from the
Laocoon itself. Despite persistent uncertainty as to its date and details of its original provenance,
Laocoon and His Sons is considered to be one of the greatest works of Greek sculpture of the Hellenistic
Period - see in particular the Pergamene School (241-133 BCE) - and, aside from the Venus de Milo, is
probably the most famous sculpture from Ancient Greece.

History and Discovery


The Laocoon statue was discovered in January 1506 buried in the ground of a Rome vineyard owned by
Felice de' Fredis. One of the first experts to attend the excavation site was Michelangelo (1475-1564),
the famous Renaissance sculptor. Pope Julius II, a lover of Greek art, ordered the work to be brought
immediately to the Vatican, where it was installed in the Belvedere Court Garden. Not surprisingly, given
Pliny's comment that it was "superior to all works in painting and bronze", the Laocoon statue had a
significant impact on Italian Renaissance art in general and Renaissance sculptors, in particular.

In fact, the Laocoon rapidly became one of the most studied, revered and copied works of ancient art
ever put on display. Other famous treasures in the Vatican Museums, like Leochares's Belvedere Apollo
(c.330 BCE) and Apollonius's heroic Belvedere Torso (1st/2nd Century BCE) were outshone by
comparison. Since its discovery in 1506, many copies have been made of the Laocoon, including a
bronze version by Baccio Bandinelli (1493-1560), now in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, and a bronze
EGE, KENNETH M. BSA22A1

casting, made by Francesco Primaticcio (1504-1570) for the French King Francis I, now at the Louvre in
Paris. Other copies can be seen in the Grand Palace of the Knights of Saint John in Rhodes, and at the
Archeological Museum of Odessa.

As a result of its enduring fame, the Laocoon statue was removed from the Vatican by Napoleon, in
1799, taken to Paris where it was installed in the Louvre as an exemplar of Neoclassical art. It was
returned to the Vatican in 1816, by the British authorities in Paris, following the defeat of Napoleon at
Waterloo.

In 1957, sculptural fragments belonging to four marble groups portraying scenes from Homer's epic
poem the Odyssey (8th/9th century BCE) were unearthed at Sperlonga, Naples. The site of the discovery
was an ancient banquet hall formerly used by the Roman Emperor Tiberius (ruled 14-37 CE). One of the
fragments, a bust of Odysseus, is stylistically very similar to Laocoon and His Sons, while the names
Hagesander, Athenodoros and Polydorus were inscribed on another fragment.

In 1906, Laocoon's right arm (missing from the original find in 1506) had been discovered by chance in a
builder's yard in Rome by the archeologist Ludwig Pollak, director of the Museo Barracco. Believing it
might be the lost arm in question, Pollak donated it to the Vatican Museum, where it remained for over
fifty years. Then in 1960 museum experts verified that the arm belonged to the Laocoon. Accordingly,
the statue was reassembled with the new arm attached.

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy