Laocoön and His Sons
The statue of Laocoön and His Sons has been one of the most famous ancient sculptures ever since it was excavated in Rome in 1506. Various dates have been suggested for the statue, ranging from about 200BC to the 70s AD. It is on display in the Museo Pio-Clementino, a part of the Vatican Museums, and is considered to be of the finest examples of the Hellenistic baroque.
About Laocoön and His Sons in brief
The statue of Laocoön and His Sons has been one of the most famous ancient sculptures ever since it was excavated in Rome in 1506. The group has been called \”the prototypical icon of human agony\” in Western art. Various dates have been suggested for the statue, ranging from about 200 BC to the 70s AD. It is on display in the Museo Pio-Clementino, a part of the Vatican Museums, and is considered to be of the finest examples of the Hellenistic baroque. The style of the work is agreed to be that of the Pergamene style, which arose in Greek Minor Asia around 200 BC and is undoubtedly the best known original work of the period. The story of the Trojan priest came from the Greek Epic Cycle on the Trojan Wars, though it is not mentioned by Homer. It had been the subject of a tragedy, now lost, by Sophocles and was mentioned by other Greek writers, though the events around the attack by the serpents vary considerably. In one version, the snakes were sent by Poseidon and in the first by Athena, or Apollo, and the deaths were interpreted by the Trojans as proof that the horse was a sacred object. In other versions he was killed for having had sex with his wife in the temple of Poseidon, or simply making a sacrifice in the Temple of Apollo. In either case, he was a priest of Apollo, who should have been celibate but had married. Although mostly in excellent condition for an excavated sculpture, the group is missing several parts, and analysis suggests that it was remodelled in ancient times and has undergone a number of restorations since itwas excavated.
The most famous account of these is now in Virgil’s Aeneid, but this dates from between 29 and 19 BC, which is possibly later than the sculpture. However, some scholars see the group as a depiction of the scene as described by Virgil. The snakes are depicted as both biting and constricting, and are probably intended to be as venomous as snakes are in Aretino thought to be. The youth embraced in the coils is fearful; the child who has received the poison dies, but the older son is able to escape and escape the poison, and so does the child’s father. The two serpent figures, in attacking the three figures, produce the most striking and most striking of fear and suffering, in striking the semblances of death and death. The suffering is shown through the contorted expressions of the faces, which are matched by the struggling bodies, especially that of La Cocoön himself, with every part of his body straining. It is not known whether it is an original work or a copy of an earlier sculpture, probably in bronze, or made for a wealthy Roman, possibly of the Imperial family. Others see it as probably an original Work of the later period, continuing to use the PerGamene style of some two centuries earlier.
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