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Laöcoon

A work made of engraving in black on pieced, cream laid paper.
Public Domain

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  • A work made of engraving in black on pieced, cream laid paper.

Date:

1540/65

Artist:

Nicolas Beatrizet
French, 1515-after 1565

About this artwork

Upon the arrival of the Trojan Horse, Laöcoon, a Trojan priest of Poseidon, suspected foul play and threw a spear at the horse. Rather than revealing the Greek soldiers within, this act unjustly earned him and his young sons a painful death from sea serpents sent by the goddess Athena. This print by Nicolas Beatrizet shows the Hellenistic Greek sculpture (or later copy) unearthed in Rome in 1506 and immediately hailed as a masterpiece of antiquity by artists such as Raphael and Michelangelo. Laöcoon’s right arm was missing from the sculpture, and debate raged over its replacement until the original arm (bent, as Michelangelo guessed, rather than fully extended) was discovered in 1906.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Nicolas Beatrizet

Title

Laöcoon

Place

France (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1535–1565

Medium

Engraving in black on pieced, cream laid paper

Dimensions

41.2 × 29.4 cm (16 1/4 × 11 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

The Wallace L. DeWolf and Joseph Brooks Fair Collections

Reference Number

1920.1991

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/106669/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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