Laocoön and His Sons is an ancient sculpture which was excavated in
Rome, Italy, in 1506. It depicts the
Trojan priest
Laocoön and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus being attacked by sea serpents. The figures in the statue are nearly life-sized, with the entire group measuring just over 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in height. The statue is likely to be the same one that received praise from the Roman writer
Pliny the Elder, who attributed the work (then housed in the palace of the emperor
Titus) to three Greek sculptors from the island of
Rhodes:
Agesander, Athenodoros and Polydorus, but he did not mention the work's date or patron. Modern scholars are not certain of the work's origins; it might be an original work or a copy of an earlier bronze sculpture. After its discovery,
Laocoön and His Sons was put on public display in the
Vatican Museums, where it remains.
Sculpture credit: attributed to Agesander, Athenodoros and Polydorus; photographed by Wilfredo Rodríguez
