Francesco Fanelli (1590 - 1653)

Private collection, United Kingdom

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Collection privée, Grande Bretagne

The ancient Roman marble group of the Laocoön has inspired interpretation and reinterpretation over the last 500 years. It remains probably the most famous of all antique sculptures through which generations have been able to reflect their own particular struggle. The subject is taken from the history of the Trojan Wars. Laocoön, a priest of Apollo in Troy, tried to warn his countrymen that the Trojan horse should not be trusted. In so doing he angered Athena, who sent sea serpents to kill him and his two sons as they prayed to Poseidon by the seashore. Despite the changes in style and taste in Europe from the High Renaissance to Neoclassicism and beyond, the popularity of the Laocoön has remained undiminished. From Antico’s diminutive bronze version to Baccio Bandinelli’s life-size marble, replicas have been in constant demand in every material and size from the moment of its discovery on 14th January 1506.

RELATED LITERATURE

F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique. The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900, New Haven and London, 1981, pp. 243-247, no. 52;

J. Warren, Beauty & Power: Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Peter Marino Collection, exh. cat.,

The Wallace Collection, London, The Huntington Art Collections, San Marino, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, London, 2010, pp. 158 – 164