Art Institute of Chicago

Laocoön

Nicolas Beatrizet

Date

1540/65

Medium

Engraving in black on pieced, cream laid paper

Culture

France

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Upon the arrival of the Trojan Horse, Laöcoon, a Trojan priest of Poseidon, suspected foul play and threw a spear at the horse. Rather than revealing the Greek soldiers within, this act unjustly earned him and his young sons a painful death from sea serpents sent by the goddess Athena. This print by Nicolas Beatrizet shows the Hellenistic Greek sculpture (or later copy) unearthed in Rome in 1506 and immediately hailed as a masterpiece of antiquity by artists such as Raphael and Michelangelo. Laöcoon’s right arm was missing from the sculpture, and debate raged over its replacement until the original arm (bent, as Michelangelo guessed, rather than fully extended) was discovered in 1906.

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