Transcript laocoon group

Greek Art
The Laocoon Group
The Laocoon Group
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Introduction:
Greek or Hellenic art developed in the
Greek peninsula, on the islands of the
Aegean Sea, and on the shores of Asia
Minor.
The inhabitants of Greece called
themselves Hellenes, and their country
Hellas.
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Gods- The Greek Gods were generally
nature personifications, who assumed
human forms. Each city chose a patron
divinity.
Greek also has produced great
philosophers like Socrates, Plato,
Aristotle.
The Greek Art is often divided into:
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Pre- Hellenic, including chiefly the
Cretan and Mycenaean (about 30001100
B.C.)
2. Hellenic, subdivided into
Archaic(1200-450 B.C.)
Classical(450-300 B.C.)
Hellenistic (3rd C. B.C. to
Christian era.)
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Sculpture:
It was in sculpture that the Greeks excelled.
They were first to attain perfection in carving,
statues of the human body, both in relief and
in the round, at rest and in motion.
Their ideal perfection of physical qualities was
achieved by athletic exercises for the full
development of bodily beauty
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The result was their magnificent physique
and sculptors found splendid models among
the competitors for the games.
The themes of Greek sculpture were varied
and not limited to any one aspect of local life;
they were religious, civil, domestic and
sepulchral as the need arose.
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Several athletic figures of young men from
the archaic period have been preserved. The
are often called by the Greek word Kouros(
plural kouroi)
Until the “Nike” was discovered over a
hundred years ago, the most admired work of
Hellenistic statuary had been a group
showing the death of Laocoon and his two
sons.
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It had been found in Rome as early as 1506
and had made a tremendous impression on
Michelangelo and countless others.
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The history of its fame is rather like that of
the “Apollo Belvedere”; the two were treated
as complementary, the “Apollo”exemplifying
harmonious beauty, the Laocoon sublime
tragedy
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Today we tend to find pathos of the group
somewhat calculated and rhetorical; its
meticulous surface finish strikes us as a
display of virtuoso technique.
In style, including the relief – like spread of
the three figures, it clearly descends from the
Pergamum frieze, although its dynamism has
become uncomfortably self – conscious.
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It was long accepted as a Greek original
and identified with a group by
Agesender, Athenodorus, and Polydorus
of Rhodes that the Roman writer Pily
mentions, in the palace of the Emperor
Titus; now it is thought to be a Roman
copy or reconstruction of a late
Hellenistic work.
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For the Romans, the subject must have
held a special meaning; the divine
punishment meted out to Laocoon and
his sons forewarned Aeneas of the fall
of Troy and caused him to flee that city
in time.
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Since Aeneas was believed to have
come to Italy and to have been the
ancestor of Romulus and Remus, the
death of Laocoon could be viewed as
the first link in a chain of events that
ultimately led to the founding of Rome.