Laocoon

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Bronze sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Room 16

Inventory

PV 09297

Material and technique

Bronze, opaque black lacquer

Author

Roman School (?)

Dating

First half of 16th century

Dimensions

30.5 x 25.5 x 12.3 cm.

Origin

Barsanti Collection (1934)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

This group has been considered by previous studies as a Florentine work dating from around 1550. But its rather modest quality indicates it was made in Rome by an Italian, perhaps Venetian, artist of limited ability. The artist would have seen the marble statue of Laocoon and His Sons in the flesh, and not merely drawings or engravings. The marble group was restored in 1521, when Baccio Bandinelli replaced the right arms missing from both Laocoon and his youngest son. This bronze would have been executed after this restoration.

Pietro Cannata

Bibliography

L. Pollak, Raccolta Alfredo Barsanti (Trecento-Settecento), Bergamo 1922, no. 70 p. 104; A. Santangelo, Museo di Palazzo Venezia. Catalogo delle sculture, Rome 1954, p. 48.