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WALKING TOURS OF ROME

Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts

27/2/2020

 
Map
Laocoon and His Sons, Vatican Museums, Rome
Laocoon and His Sons

The world-famous antique sculpture of Laocoön and his Sons was unearthed in a vineyard near the Colosseum in January, 1506. The vineyard was the property of Felice de Fredis, who immediately sold the work to Pope Julius II (r. 1503-13).

The sculpture was put on display in the garden of the Vatican's Palazzo Belvedere, today's Cortile Ottagono (Octagonal Courtyard), where it has been ever since, apart from a brief sojourn (1798-1816) in Paris. 

In Virgil's book The Aeneid, Laocoön was a Trojan priest, who was killed with both of his sons, after attempting to expose the Greeks' ruse of the wooden horse. Laocoön struck the horse with his spear, warning his fellow Trojans not to accept it: "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes" (I fear the Danaans [Greeks], even those bearing gifts).

In his Naturalis Historia (Natural History), Gaius Plinius Secundus (23-79), better known as Pliny the Elder, refers to the Laocoön, which then stood in the palace of the emperor Titus and bore. He attributes the work to three sculptors from Rhodes, Hagesandros, Athenadorus and Polydoros, but does not give it a date or patron. 

When the statue was unearthed, Laocoön's right arm was missing, along with part of the hand of one of his sons and the right arm of the other, and various sections of snake. Over the years the sculpture was restored and all the missing parts were replaced, as was the practise of the time.

Four hundred years later, in 1906, Ludwig Pollak, an Austro-Czech archaeologist, antiques dealer and director of Rome's Museo Barracco, made a remarkable discovery. While rummaging about in a builder‘s yard, close to where the sculpture had been found, he came across a fragment of a marble arm, which bore a stylistic similarity to the figure of Laocoön.

He presented it to the Vatican Museums, where it remained in their storerooms for half a century. It wasn't until 1957 that the faux limbs were finally removed and Pollak's fragment reattached.  

Statue of Laocoon and his sons with the missing parts restored
The Laocoon with the missing parts restored

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    My name is David Lown and I am an art historian from Cambridge, England. Since 2001 I have lived in Italy, where I run private and
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  • Home
  • Private Tours
  • Contact
  • Rome
  • St Peter's Basilica
    • Altars >
      • Altar of St Joseph
      • Altar of St Gregory the Great
      • Altar of the Madonna of Succour
      • Altar of St Sebastian
      • Altar of the Lie
      • Altar of the Presentation of the Virgin
      • Altar of St Jerome
      • Altar of the Transfiguration
      • Altar of Pope Leo the Great
    • Monuments >
      • Countess Matilda of Canossa
      • Maria Clementina Sobieska
      • Queen Christina of Sweden
      • Pope Innocent VIII
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      • Pope Gregory XIV
      • Pope Leo XI
      • Pope Urban VIII
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      • Pope Clement X
      • Pope Innocent XI
      • Pope Alexander VIII
      • Pope Innocent XII
      • Pope Benedict XIV
      • Pope Clement XIII
      • Pope Pius VII
      • Pope Leo XII
      • Pope Pius VIII
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      • Pope Pius X
      • Pope Benedict XV
      • Pope Pius XI
      • Pope Pius XII
      • Pope John XXIII
      • The Stuarts
    • Portico >
      • Door of Death
      • Door of Good and Evil
      • Central Door
      • Door of the Sacraments
      • Holy Door
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      • Baldacchino
      • Confessio
      • Dome
      • St Longinus
      • St Helena
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    • Chapel of the Choir
    • Chapel of the Baptistery
    • Nave
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    • North Wall
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      • Ceiling: Part Two
      • Ceiling: Part Three
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    • Trevi Fountain
    • Fontana della Barcaccia
    • Fountain of the Triton
    • Fountain of the Bees
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    • Fountain of the Four Rivers
    • Fountain of the Acqua Paola
    • Fountain of the Turtles
    • Fountain of the Naiads
    • Fountain of the Cannonball
    • Piazza del Popolo
    • Fountain of the Pantheon
    • Fountains of Piazza Farnese
    • Fountain of Goddess Roma
    • Rioni Fountains
    • Street Fountains
    • Venice Marries the Sea
    • St Peter's Square
    • Fountain of the Moor
    • Fountain of Neptune
    • Fountain of the Porter
    • Fountain of the Seahorses
  • Gallery
    • Piazzas >
      • Piazza del Campidglio
      • Piazza del Quirinale
      • Piazza del Popolo
      • Piazza di Spagna
      • Piazza Navona
      • Piazza S. M. in Trastevere
      • Piazza San Pietro
    • Mosaics
    • Fountains
    • Churches
    • Ancient Rome
    • Palaces
    • Domes
    • Papal Coats of Arms
    • Street Shrines
    • Old Photographs
    • Borromini & the Baroque
  • Images of the Eternal City