Lacoon Quick Guide

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Frequently Asked Questions

• Was the Laocoon created by Michelangelo?

  The latest theory, proposed in 2005 by Lynn Catterson, is that the Laocoon is a forgery created in 1506 by Michelangelo. This has been dismissed as "non-credible" by Richard Brilliant, in his book My Laocoon. As described in Virgil's Aeneid, Laocoon was a Trojan priest.

• What is Laocoon and his sons?

  Introduction An icon of Hellenistic art, the figurative Greek sculpture known as the Laocoon Group, or Laocoon and His Sons, is a monumental statue which is on display at the Museo Pio Clementino, in the Vatican Museums, Rome.

• What does Laocoon mean in the Aeneid?

  Mythology. As described in Virgil's Aeneid, Laocoon was a Trojan priest. When the Greeks, who were holding Troy under siege, left the famous Trojan Horse on the beach, Laocoon tried to warn the Trojan leaders against bringing it into the city, in case it was a trap.

• Why is the Laocoon so famous?

  In fact, the Laocoon rapidly became one of the most studied, revered and copied works of ancient art ever put on display. Other famous treasures in the Vatican Museums, like Leochares's Belvedere Apollo (c.330 BCE) and Apollonius's heroic Belvedere Torso (1st/2nd Century BCE) were outshone by comparison.

• What is the subject of the statue Laocoon and his sons?

  The statue has its subject apparently derived from a play entitled Sophocles that existed in ancient Greek. The sculpture entails Laocoon the Trojan priest and his two sons identified as thymbraeus and Antiphanters. One can suggestively discern from the statue that Laocoon and his sons were being strangled by monstrous sea snakes.

• Is the Vatican Laocoon a copy of a Greek sculpture?

  Thus, in all probability, the Vatican Laocoon is a copy of a Greek Hellenistic bronze - almost certainly from the Pergamon School, see similar drama, straining muscles and contorted faces in the Great Altar of Zeus (c.180 BCE, Pergamon, Turkey).

• What is the origin of Laocoön and his sons?

  Due to its style and subject matter, art historians believe that the original Laocoön and His Sons was sculpted around 200 BCE in the Greek city of Pergamon. This theory is supported by Pliny the Elder, a Roman writer and philosopher, in his encyclopedic survey of ancient sculpture called Natural History.

• How old is the Laocoon statue in Rome?

  And while that might sound old, the statue is believed to be a copy from an even older original Laocoon cast in bronze dating 200 BC. The Laocoon was believed to be in the Palace of the Emperor Titus (39AD/81AD) but after the fall of the Roman Empire, the Laocoon statue was lost for a millennium.