LAOCOON AND HIS SONS

Date: Early 1st Century C.E.

Artist: Athanadoros, Hagesandros, Polydoros

Art Movement/Period: Hellenistic

Where it is exhibited: Vatican Museum

The Marble Face of Pain: The Journey of Laocoon and His Sons from the Renaissance to the Present

Many abandoned and forgotten works of ancient art were discovered during the Renaissance, either by chance or by those searching for them themselves. This statue was found in 1506 by a farmer working in a vineyard on the Esquiline Hill in Rome.

The palace of Roman Emperor Titus, believed to have been built on the site of Nero's famous Golden House, which is said to have burned Rome, was discovered beneath Felice de' Freddi's vineyard. The statue found in this underground palace is Laocoön and His Sons , described by Pliny the Elder as a masterpiece by Rhodian sculptors.

Michelangelo was one of the first to see the statue. He was commissioned by Pope Julius II to examine it, along with the architect Giuliano da Sangallo.

Julius, like many of his 16th-century Italian contemporaries, was a collector and connoisseur of ancient Greek and Roman art. He purchased the statue, and it has remained in the Vatican collection ever since.

Laocoön and His Sons, Hagesandros, Polydoros ve Athenodoros,  Early 1st Century C.E., Vatican Museums, Vatican City

The Balance of Body and Soul: The Theatrical Expression of Pain

The statue is made from six blocks of Greek Parian marble and stands 2.03 meters tall. It depicts Laocoön and his two sons being brutally killed by snakes. All three are nude, with pronounced muscular build. Like all ancient Greek and Roman marble sculptures, this one was originally painted.

At the center of the composition, Laocoön sits on an altar in a contorted position. One of the snakes sinks its fangs into his hip. Laocoön throws his head back as he cries out in agony. The most intense expression of pain is evident not only on his face but throughout his body. The pain is palpable in every muscle and nerve. Along with the pain, struggle and resistance are visible, but no expression of anger is visible.

The deeply carved curls in his hair and beard enhance this impressive appearance.

Laocoön and His Sons, Hagesandros, Polydoros ve Athenodoros,  Early 1st Century C.E., Vatican Museums, Vatican City

Laocoön's two young sons flank him. The son on the left is the younger one, completely abandoned and likely dead. The older son on the right struggles to untangle the snake coiled around his leg and arm. His head is turned toward his father, his face a mixture of fear and astonishment. The sculpture possesses a theatricality and exaggerated realism.

Michelangelo's Returning Shadow and the True Form of Laocoön

Once the statue is excavated and its missing pieces are removed, experts begin to work out how it once looked. The artifact's arms and parts of the snake are found to be missing.

Laocoön and His Sons, Hagesandros, Polydoros ve Athenodoros,  Early 1st Century C.E., Vatican Museums, Vatican City

Pope Julius II was the city's patron, and its artists were heirs to Roman tradition. It was only natural that one of his favorite artists would complete the work.

The Pope had established a court composed of the most renowned artists of the time. He immediately purchased Laocoon from Felice de' Freddi and installed it in the palace courtyard. The work remained in disrepair until 1510. That year, the aging architect Donato Bramante challenged leading artists to demonstrate how best to repair Laocoön 's damage. Raphael, a distant relative of Bramante, was chosen as the jury.

Dismissing Michelangelo's view that Laocoön's right arm is bent back in pain, Raphael instead declared Jacopo Sansovino the winner. In Sansovino's version, the priest's arm extends upward, creating a dramatic diagonal composition. This interpretation was adopted in a series of restorations between 1520 and 1540.

This was the standard appearance of the statue until the 20th century. However, an ironic turning point occurred in history in 1906, when an ancient arm bent backward was discovered in a workshop in Rome. In 1942, confirmation that this piece was indeed Laocoön and its reattachment to the statue vindicated Michelangelo's view centuries after his death.

Laocoön and His Sons, Hagesandros, Polydoros ve Athenodoros,  Early 1st Century C.E., Vatican Museums, Vatican City

Troy's Warning: The Tragic Fate of the Priest Laocoön

This legend dates back to the 7th century BC. The story of Laocoön is part of the Epic Cycle, a series of epic poems recounting the Trojan War. Only the Iliad and the Odyssey survive, but fragments from other sections survive. Laocoön appears in the lost work Iliupersis (The Sack of Troy) by Arctinos of Miletus.

The Greeks, pretending to abandon the impenetrable siege of Troy, send a large wooden horse as a final offering to the gods. In reality, some of the soldiers are hiding out of sight, while others are hidden inside the horse. Several Trojans oppose the horse's entry into the city. One of these is Cassandra, a prophetess cursed with the ability to foresee the future, and the other is Laocoön, a priest of the sea god Neptune (Poseidon in Greek).

Laocoön warns with his famous words: “I fear the Greeks, even if they bring gifts.”

However, the gods had decreed that the Greeks would win the war, and they would not allow anyone to alter this fate. So the gods sent two serpents to silence Laocoön. These serpents came from the sea and attacked Laocoön and his sons. They coiled around all three of them, biting them and killing first the sons, then Laocoön.

Plinius and Laocoön

Roman aristocrat and scholar Plinius published the first volumes of his Natural History in 77 AD. This encyclopedia aimed to record all known information. The statue of Laocoön is also described in this work. Plinius describes this statue as he saw it in the house of Emperor Titus and attributes the work to the Rhodian sculptors Hagesander, Polydoros, and Athenodoros. Plinius praised the statue as superior to all other works of art. Although there are some discrepancies between the Laocoon statue and Plinius's description, such as the statue being made of several blocks of stone rather than a single block, it is generally accepted that the Laocoön in the Vatican is the statue described by Plinius.

While Laocoön frequently appears in texts, he is not a popular subject in art. However, his sculptures left a deep impression on viewers because the figures move. The dramatic depiction of suffering creates an emotional connection with the viewer.

Source:

• Vatican Museum

• Dr. Amanda Herring, "Athanadoros, Hagesandros, and Polydoros of Rhodes, Laocoön and his Sons", SmartHistory

• Monique Webber, ' Who Says Michelangelo Was Right? Conflicting Visions of the Past in Early Modern Prints ', Public Domain Review

• Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, "Laokoon oder Über die Grenzen der Malerei und Poesie", Project Gutenberg