Art 211 9/9/20

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 Laocoön and His Sons (The Laocoön Group)

 https://smarthistory.org/athanadoros-hagesandros-and-polydoros-of-rhodes-laocoon-and-his-sons/

 

Laocoön and His Sons, or the Laocoön Group was sculpted in 323 BCE – 31 CE. The marble piece was unearthed in Rome in 1506. The fragments of the sculpture were found in the remains of the palace of the emperor Titus.  Ancient art historian, Pliny has seen the piece there a long time before. According to Pliny, Laocoön and His Sons was created by three sculptures from Rhodes. Those sculptors were, Polydoros, Athanadoros and Hagesandros. The details such as the muscles and movement and energy is not associated with classical ancient Greece but with Hellenistic with the third or second century.  Laocoön and His Sons displays significance in the realistic representation of movement.

Apparently, Laocoön had only one son, but the sculptors’ variation added another son to correspond with the Roman poet Vergil’s account in the Aeneid.

The piece is displaying Laocoön and his sons being attacked by serpents. There are different versions and reasoning to why the group is being struck. One of the more widespread stories states that, Laocoön was a Trojan priest and when the Greeks presented the Trojan horse as a gift from Greeks in troy, he knew it was a trick.  Laocoön tried to warn his compatriots about the danger of bringing the Greek’s wooden horse and even tried to expose the “gift” by throwing a spear at the horse. Because of this, Laocoön and his sons were punished. The Gods who favored the Greek’s in war sent snakes to attack the priest and his sons.

The sense of agony and tragedy in the sculpture is similar to another piece, The Great Alter of Zeus. Both sculptures have a lot of details in the anatomy of the figures being displayed and have a lot of Hellenistic traits in them.

Because the piece was found in fragments, the piece could be wrong since it had to be reconstructed far past the time it was originally created. The art piece is now located in the Vatican museum. People can enjoy the sculpture even though the piece is expressing deep pain and agony.

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