The statue of 'Laocoön and His Sons', is also called the 'Laocoön Group', which in Italian is translated from 'Gruppo del Laocoonte'. It is one of the most famous ancient sculptures we have today and was excavated in Rome in the 16th-century. This sculpture has since attracted archaeologists and art lovers alike for its awe-inspiring craftsmanship for centuries. It is a Roman copy of an ancient Greek piece but yet it is interestingly reminiscent of later 17th-century Baroque style sculpture. 

What we see here is an artwork that historians have concluded to be a marble copy of a bronze original from the Hellenistic Period (323 BCE – 31 CE). Roman's melted down bronze they found for other uses, but not before copying. In turn, this marble version may not be completely true to form, as it has been heavily restored. Nevertheless, it has been celebrated for its technical mastery and for the intense emotion it conveys. We see it in true Hellenistic fashion, as it showcases an interest in the realistic depiction of movement. In its action-packed scene, we see three figures frantically try to free themselves from the grasp of sinuous serpents. No matter how much they twist and turn, however, they remain entangled, culminating in a swirling mass of snakes and limbs. In Virgil's stories, Laocoön was a priest of Poseidon who was killed with both his sons after attempting to expose the ruse of the Trojan Horse from the mythos of the Greek Illiad. In this story, Laocoön struck the Greek horse with a spear to prove deception and then he was punished by the opposing gods. 

This incredible statue and depiction was found in a Roman vineyard in 1506 and later housed in the Vatican Museum, where it remains today. But for some time it was taken elsewhere. Like many conquerors, Napoleon helped himself to artistic treasures of conquered territories, which included masterpieces of Greco-Roman sculpture, such as the 'Medici Venus' from Florence and 'Laocoön and His Sons' from the Vatican. Napoleon gave the looted treasures to the Louvre in Paris, as a symbol of France's and his own greatness, and to associate the French Empire with the glories of its ancient Roman predecessor. After his defeat in 1815, the looted treasures were returned to their original owners, leaving the Louvre's grand halls filled with plaster casts including this wonderful work. 

'Laocoön and His Sons', Greek Sculpture, c. 50 BCE, marble, h. 184 cm, Vatican Museum, Rome.
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*This is a plaster cast of the group Laocoön and his Sons by Hagesandrus, Polidorus and Athenodorus of Rhodes from around the 1st century BC to the early 1st century AD, itself a copy of an earlier sculpture. It was found at the Esquiline Hill in Rome in 1506.