Laocoön and His Sons, also called the Laocoön Group, has been one of the most famous ancient sculptures ever since it was excavated in Rome in 1506. It has been dated from the 1st century BC (the Hellenistic Ancient Greek period), and it is very likely the same statue praised in the highest terms by the main Roman writer on art, Pliny the Elder. The figures are near life-size and the group is a little over 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in height.
It is based on the myth of a Trojan priest killed along with his sons by sea serpents sent by the sea god Poseidon as retribution for Laocoön's attempt to expose the ruse of the Trojan Horse. Originally installed in the palace of Emperor Titus, this life-size figurative grouping, attributed to a trio of Greek sculptors from the Island of Rhodes (Agesander, Athenodoros, and Polydorus), is unrivaled as a study of human suffering.
It is currently on display in the Museo Pio-Clementino, a part of the Vatican Museums.
The Laocoön and His Sons provides examples of:
- Artistic License – Biology:
- Charles Darwin once famously pointed out that the way Laocoön's eyebrows bulge is physiologically impossible.
- John Ruskin pointed out that real snakes form coils to hold their victims still and do not bite when doing so. The ancient sculptors, while expert at human anatomy, seem to be not as expert at snakes.
- Kick Them While They Are Down: The group has been called "the prototypical icon of human agony" in Western art, and unlike the agony often depicted in Christian art showing the Passion of Jesus and martyrs, this suffering has no redemptive power or reward. The suffering is shown through the contorted expressions of the faces, which are matched by the struggling bodies, especially that of Laocoön himself, with every part of his body straining.
- Protagonist Title
- The Noun and the Noun
- Really Moves Around: Allegedly installed in the palace of Emperor Titus before the Catholic Church was eventually formed and gained ownership of it.
- Shout-Out: To The Aeneid, as it portrays Laocoön's torment at the fangs of the snakes the gods sicced onto him (and his sons) to silence him.
- Snakes Are Sinister: The sea serpents are the bad guy in this narrative and The Bad Guy Wins.
- Ur-Example: It is said that this statue was the largest influencer in the creation of many of the marble statues made in The Renaissance. While it can be credited as the reason why stone statues are left clean and white, it was originally painted in bright colors (a norm in Ancient Rome), only for time to cause all of the color to fade.
