Cleveland Museum of Art

Man Entwined by Two Snakes

Giovanni Antonio da Pordenone

Date

c. 1527

Medium

pen and brown ink and brown and blue wash, heightened with white gouache

Culture

Italy, 16th century

Department

Drawings

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

According to contemporary accounts, Michelangelo attended the excavation of the Greek sculpture Laocoön and His Sons when it was unearthed near Rome in 1506. Laocoön was a Trojan priest who, along with his two sons, was attacked by sea serpents sent by the goddess Athena. The emotional agony of the sculpture fascinated Michelangelo and artists throughout Italy, inspiring copies and variations. In this drawing, a northern Italian artist referenced just one figure from the story using the chiaroscuro technique—achieved here with dark and light inks on blue toned paper—to emphasize the sculptural quality of the body.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.