Two Male Heads after the Antique, the Sons of Laocoön

Prints and Drawings

c. 1605

Hendrick Goltzius
Dutch, 1558–1617

Surviving drawings in other collections prove that Hendrick Goltzius studied firsthand the famed Laocoön group, an ancient Roman sculpture unearthed to great fanfare in the early 1500s. The monument was widely revered as an ideal representation of human torment, made more famous by printed representations.

Goltzius created this red-chalk drawing at least a decade after his visit to Rome in 1591, employing specific motifs for his own expressive ends. Extracting the faces of Laocoön’s sons from the sculptural ensemble and reversing their left-to-right order, Goltzius blended the red chalk to emphasize the protruding volumes of the neck muscles. By applying greater pressure, he reinforced the contour lines of the figures, particularly around the sides of their faces.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Hendrick Goltzius
Title: Two Male Heads after the Antique, the Sons of Laocoön
Place: Netherlands (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.: 1600–1610
Medium: Red chalk on ivory laid paper
Dimensions: 16 × 25.2 cm (6 5/16 × 9 15/16 in.)
Credit Line: Regenstein Acquisition Fund
Reference Number: 2014.983
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/224216/manifest.json

E.J.K. Reznicek, Die Zeichnungen von Hendrick Goltzius (Utrecht: Hantjens Dekker & Gumbert, 1961), vol. 1, p. 448, no. 422; vol. 2, pl. 441.
Jean-Pierre Cuzin, Jean-René Gaborit, Alain Pasquier, eds., D’après l’antique, exh. cat. Musée du Louvre, 2000–01 (Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2000), p. 244, under cat. no. 78, pl. 78a.

Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen, Le Cabinet d’un Amateur: dessins flamands et hollandais de XVIe et XVIIe siècle, Nov. 25, 1976–Jan. 9, 1977, p. 36, no. 62, pl. 34; also Paris, Institut néerlandais, Jan. 20–Mar. 6, 1977; Brussels, Bibliothèque Albert 1er, Mar. 19–30 Apr. 1977.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Rubens, Rembrandt, and Drawing in the Golden Age”, September 28, 2019 - January 5, 2020, pp. 101, 103 (ill.), 300, cat. 33, cat. by Victoria Sancho Lobis, et. al.

Sold by Max (Sándor) Hevesi (1894–1948), Vienna to I.Q. (Johan Quirijn) van Regteren Altena (1899–1980), Amsterdam, 1929 [Inventory book: ‘845. t. Goltzius. 2 koppen’]; by descent; sold, Christie’s, London, July 10, 2014, lot 23, to the Art Institute of Chicago.

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Two Male Heads after the Antique, the Sons of Laocoön

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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.

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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.

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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.