A Quiet Tourist In Rome: LAOCOON by Jerome Allavena

LAOCOON Animated gif, 2023. 1080 x 1080 pixels, 162 frames, B&W.

The Laocoon group is a Roman copy in marble of an ancient Greek bronze sculpture depicting the Trojan priest Laocoon and his two sons attacked by snakes. The statue could date from -40.

It is kept at the Pio-Clementino Museum, in the Vatican, in the Vatican collection, Belvédère, n°74. It is made of fine-grained marble. Contrary to opinion widespread, the group did not come from a single block of marble, but eight blocks. It measures 2.42 m in height and 1.60 m in width. The scene is described in particular in the Odyssey and the Aeneid. It is one of the most representative works of Hellenistic art. It is designed for a single point of view. It is attributed to Agesandros, Polydoros and Athenodoros according to Pliny the Elder. There are several areas of disagreement about this group: on the dating (some thinking that it dates from the 1st century av. BC and others from the 2nd century BC.