Laocoön and His Sons facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Laocoön and His Sons |
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| Medium | Marble |
| Dimensions | 208 cm × 163 cm × 112 cm (6 ft 10 in × 5 ft 4 in × 3 ft 8 in) |
| Location | Vatican Museums, Vatican City |
3D model (click to interact) |
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The statue of Laocoön and His Sons, also known as the Laocoön Group, is one of the most famous ancient sculptures. It was found in Rome in 1506 and has been on display at the Vatican Museums ever since. Many believe this is the same statue praised by Pliny the Elder, a Roman writer on art. He said it was made by Greek sculptors.
The figures in the statue are almost life-sized, standing over 2 m (6 ft 7 in) tall. The sculpture shows the Trojan priest Laocoön and his two sons, Antiphantes and Thymbraeus. They are being attacked by giant sea serpents.
The Laocoön Group is famous for showing "human agony" in Western art. The suffering is clear in their twisted faces and straining bodies. Laocoön's face, in particular, shows extreme pain. Every part of his body looks like it's struggling.
Pliny said the statue was in the palace of Emperor Titus. He named three Greek sculptors from the island of Rhodes as its creators: Agesander, Athenodoros, and Polydorus. The statue is a great example of the "Hellenistic baroque" style, which is a dramatic and emotional Greek art style.
It's not certain if this statue is an original Greek work or a copy made later by Romans. Some experts think it's a copy of an older bronze sculpture. Others believe it's an original work from a later period, continuing an older Greek style. It was likely made for a rich Roman family, possibly even the Imperial family. Experts believe it was created between 27 BC and 68 AD.
Even though it's very old, the statue is in good condition. However, some parts were missing when it was found. It has also been repaired and restored many times since 1506. Today, you can see it in the Museo Pio-Clementino at the Vatican Museums.
Contents
The Story of Laocoön
The story of Laocoön comes from the Greek tales about the Trojan Wars. It's not in Homer's famous poems, but other Greek writers mentioned it. The most well-known version of the story is from Virgil's Aeneid. This poem was written between 29 and 19 BC, which might be after the statue was made. Still, many scholars think the statue shows the scene as Virgil described it.
In Virgil's story, Laocoön was a priest of Poseidon, the god of the sea. He and his sons were killed after he tried to warn the Trojans about the Trojan Horse. He threw a spear at the horse, trying to show it was a trick. The serpents were sent to punish him for this.
Other versions of the story exist. In one, Laocoön was a priest of Apollo who had married. The serpents only killed his two sons, leaving Laocoön alive to suffer. In some tales, he was killed for doing something wrong in the temple. The snakes were sent by gods like Poseidon or Apollo. The Trojans saw the deaths as proof that the horse was sacred. This means Laocoön was either punished for being wrong or for being right!
The snakes in the statue are shown biting and squeezing the figures. They are likely meant to be venomous, just like in Virgil's poem. An Italian writer, Pietro Aretino, praised the statue in 1537. He said the serpents make the figures look truly afraid, suffering, and dying. He noted that the youth is scared, the old man is in pain, and the child is dying from the poison.
History of the Statue
Ancient Times
The style of the Laocoön statue is called "Pergamene baroque." This style developed in Greek Asia Minor around 200 BC. A famous example is the Pergamon Altar, built around 180–160 BC. The figure of Alcyoneus on that altar is very similar to Laocoön, even fighting serpents.
The Laocoön statue is incredibly well-made. Its design is carefully planned, even though it seems parts were changed in ancient times. The two sons are smaller than their father, which makes Laocoön the main focus. The beautiful white marble used for the statue is thought to be Greek.
Pliny's Account
Pliny the Elder wrote about the Laocoön in his book Natural History. He said it was in the palace of Emperor Titus. Pliny called it better than any painting or bronze statue. He also claimed it was carved from a single block of marble, including the main figure, the children, and the serpents. He said three famous artists from Rhodes—Agesander, Polydorus, and Athenodorus—made it together.
Most experts agree that the statue Pliny described is the one we see today in the Vatican. However, the Vatican statue is made from at least seven pieces of marble, not one. This suggests Pliny might have been mistaken or that the statue was later put together from multiple blocks. Many now believe the three Rhodian artists were actually making a copy of an older Greek bronze sculpture. Pliny didn't say if it was an original or a copy, which is interesting.
The same three artists' names are also found on other sculptures, like those at Sperlonga. However, it's likely that not all of them were the exact same people. The names might have been common in a family of sculptors in Rhodes.
Discovery and Renaissance Era
The Laocoön group was found in February 1506 in a vineyard in Rome. Pope Julius II, who loved ancient art, quickly sent his artists to see it. Michelangelo was among the first to arrive with architect Giuliano da Sangallo and his young son, Francesco. Francesco later wrote about the discovery:
"My father immediately said, 'That is the Laocoön, which Pliny mentions!'"
The Pope bought the statue on March 23, 1506. By August, it was placed in a special spot in the new Belvedere Garden at the Vatican. This is considered the beginning of the Vatican Museums.
In July 1798, the statue was taken to France after the French conquered Italy. It was displayed at the Louvre in Paris. After Napoleon's defeat in 1815, most of the stolen artworks were returned. The Laocoön came back to Rome in January 1816.
Restorations Over Time
When the statue was first found, Laocoön's right arm was missing. Parts of the sons' arms and the snake were also gone. Artists and experts argued about how the missing arm should look. Michelangelo thought it should be bent back over the shoulder. Others believed it should be stretched out in a heroic pose.
Around 1510, Bramante, the Pope's architect, held a contest for sculptors to make a new arm. Raphael was one of the judges. Jacopo Sansovino won with an outstretched arm, but it wasn't attached to the original statue. In 1532, Giovanni Antonio Montorsoli, a student of Michelangelo, added his own straight, outstretched arm to Laocoön. This arm stayed on the statue for centuries.
In 1906, an archaeologist named Ludwig Pollak found a marble arm fragment near where the statue was originally discovered. He thought it might belong to the Laocoön. The Vatican Museums kept it for 50 years. In 1957, the museum decided that this arm, which was bent (just as Michelangelo had suggested), was indeed the original one. They replaced Montorsoli's outstretched arm with Pollak's arm.
In the 1980s, the statue was taken apart and put back together again with the Pollak arm. The restored parts of the sons' arms were also removed. This allowed experts to study how the statue was originally put together.
Influence on Art
The discovery of the Laocoön had a huge impact on Italian artists, especially during the Baroque period. Michelangelo was very impressed by its large size and the way it showed the human body. You can see the influence of the Laocoön in many of Michelangelo's later sculptures, like the Rebellious Slave. Figures in his Sistine Chapel ceiling also show its influence. Raphael even used Laocoön's face for his depiction of Homer in his Parnassus fresco.
The sculptor Baccio Bandinelli was asked to make a copy for Pope Leo X. Bandinelli's copy is now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Many smaller copies were made from it. A bronze copy, made for King François I of France, is now in the Musée du Louvre. There are many copies of the statue around the world.
The Laocoön group quickly became famous across Europe through prints and small models. Titian created a famous woodcut that parodied the sculpture by showing three apes instead of humans. This might have been a joke about Bandinelli's copy or a comment on ideas about human and ape anatomy at the time. Peter Paul Rubens also made many drawings of the group, and its influence can be seen in his paintings.
In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte took the original statue to Paris after conquering Italy. It was displayed with honor at the Musée Napoléon. After Napoleon's defeat, the statue was returned to the Vatican in 1816.
Laocoön as an Ideal of Art
Pliny called the Laocoön "a work to be preferred to all that the arts of painting and sculpture have produced." This led to many debates about whether it truly is the greatest artwork. Johann Joachim Winckelmann wrote about how strange it was to admire beauty in a scene of death and failure. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing wrote an important essay comparing the sculpture to Virgil's poem. He argued that artists couldn't show all the physical suffering realistically because it would be too painful. Instead, they had to show suffering while still keeping the beauty of the art.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said that a true work of art, like nature, always offers new things to discover. He felt its true value could never be fully put into words.
William Blake had a very different view. He believed the Laocoön was a poor copy of an older, lost artwork. He thought it showed how imitating ancient Greek and Roman art was bad for creativity.
The central figure of Laocoön also inspired other artworks. For example, the Native American figure in Horatio Greenough's The Rescue statue, which stood at the United States Capitol, was loosely based on Laocoön.
In Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge describes himself "making a perfect Laocoön of himself with his stockings" when he's in a hurry.
John Ruskin didn't like the sculpture. He called its movements "disgusting convulsions" and preferred Michelangelo's work, like The Brazen Serpent in the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
In the 20th century, critics like Irving Babbitt and Clement Greenberg used the idea of "Laocoön" to discuss modern art and culture.
Where the Statue Was Found
The exact spot where the statue was found in 1506 was known as "the vineyard of Felice De Fredis" on the Oppian Hill in Rome. Over time, the precise location was forgotten, with only general descriptions like "near Santa Maria Maggiore." However, new research in 2010 found old documents that pinpoint the location much more accurately.
The documents show that Felice De Fredis bought the vineyard in 1504, about 14 months before the statue was found. Another document from 1527 shows there was a house on the property. The statue was found about four meters (13 feet) underground. This suggests it was likely discovered while digging the foundations for the house or a well.
The findspot was inside the old Servian Wall of Rome. It was also within the Gardens of Maecenas, which were owned by Gaius Maecenas, a friend of Emperor Augustus. Maecenas gave the gardens to Augustus in 8 BC. Emperor Tiberius later lived there. Pliny said the Laocoön was in Emperor Titus's palace. It's possible that Titus's residence was within these imperial gardens. If the statue was already there when Pliny saw it, it could have been placed there by Maecenas or any of the early emperors.
