Laocoön, thought to be a priest of Poseidon is said to have hurled a spear into the Wooden Horse and paid the consequences when a group of sea serpents engulfs himself long with his own sons.
In looking at this piece the immense scale of Laocoön becomes a clear indicator of his strength and power as he greatly over shadows his much smaller sons. In addition, this piece offers exaggerated and idealized body proportions as a piece of the Hellenistic era.
In considering composition, a triangular shape appears to unite Laocoön and his sons as they struggle to fight off the sea serpents. It is Laocoön's head which is at the top of this triangle which emphasizes his as the focal point of this piece.
In addition, facial expressions reveal fear and frustration as they battle the serpents and the two sons look to their father for aid and guidance in a time of conflict.
These terms are all very helpful in analyzing works of art and in understanding the purpose of the piece as well as its context and influence in history and culture.
Well chosen, Sarah! This sculptural group is a great example of what Fred Kleiner and others have called a "baroque" tradition in Hellenistic sculpture. Indeed, the 1957 discoveries at Sperlonga make clear how significant these sculptural groups were in creating narrative environments for Emperor Tiberius and his guests, an insight into their broader significance. For our own times, however, their significance becomes immense as the ostensible subject of the first major modern aesthetic treatise: Laocoon, by Lessing. In this 1784 book Lessing continues an ancient argument about the relative merits of different approaches and media in the visual and literary arts, redirecting the competition away from Horace's dictum "ut pictura poesis (as painting, so poetry)." The formal qualities of the sculpture are a point of departure for Lessing (who comments especially on what his predecessors had said about the work).
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