How Does Laocoön's Ability To Provide A Historical Figure

Kaitlyn Coleman
Art History
The deeper equation of Laocoön and His Sons

Three-dimensional statues harbor the ability to capture in depth scenes giving a powerful appeal to historical figures and allowing them to communicate both factual and fictional scenes. In Greek sculptor’s Athenodoros, Polydorus, and Agesander of Rhodes’ piece titled, Laocoön and His Sons (Fig.1), also known as the Laocoön Group, the artists created a three-dimensional statue of three men whose bodies are ensnared by two serpents, the man in the middle being the representation of the Trojan priest, Laocoön and the other two men on either side of him being his sons, Antiphantes and Thymbraeus, using marble as their medium. To understand the Laocoön Group
The many additive elements of the statue giving the ability to take the naked eye on a visual expedition whether it is through the litheness of the serpentine bodies as they weave in and out of each figure or though the various expressions adorned on each of the faces as if the figures themselves were to come alive. While the marble statue of the Laocoön Group is suggested to have been discovered to date as far back as 40-20 BCE, the era of which the statue was created, is constantly being debated on. Along with the question of whether or not Athenodoros, Polydorus, and Agesander’s Laocoön Group was an inspired piece or in fact a work of originality. Regardless, this statue holds a looming significance that once served as a blatant reminder to the many Romans that the presence of the Gods was ever existent and undoubtedly so after the Trojan War. This historical background reveals that Laocoön after his means of attempting to reveal the truth behind the infamous Trojan Horse was soon to meet his demise. By divulging into the writings of old scholars
Like most of the marble statues created, the inspiration was derived from a story of Greek mythology. Taking a figure and situation from actual history and exaggerating it to the point where it is has fictional aspects, but still leads the person from history to his true end. In this case, the story that brought upon the foundation of Laocoön and His Sons summoned by Virgil, serpents arose from the folds of the waves of the ocean, immediately attacking both of Laocoön’s sons and not a moment later, Laocoön himself henceforth bringing upon the very scene the artist’s meant to depict. As mentioned before, each of the individual family members is displayed as being trapped in their own region of pain in the tale. In fact, this may have been the artists of Rhodes’ very intention. Goethe believes that the artist’s possible goal was to exhibit the different forms of terror throughout each figure’s body. (Goethe & John, 86) Antiphantes (fig.2) appears to be unscathed, his fate not yet sealed by the jaws of the serpents, giving the idea of liberation. (338, Friedrichs) Richard Brilliant believes that the minor spacing between Antiphantes and Laocoön provides a form of evidence that suggests that Antiphantes escaped further harm. Backing this up, some versions of the family’s story states that Antiphantes survives. (Brilliant, 10) Whilst his brother, Thymbraeus (fig.3) on the