Pliny the Elder on the "Laocoon" group
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Pliny the Elder on the Laocoon group
70s CE: "Laocoon" group recorded in the home of the Emperor Titus by Pliny the Elder (Natural History 36.37).
Text: Latin: "Nec deinde multo plurimum fama est, quorundam claritati in operibus eximiis obstante numero artificum, quoniam nec unus occupat gloriam nec plures pariter nuncupari possunt, sicut in Laocoonte, qui est in Titi imperatoris domo, opus omnibus et picturae et statuariae artis praeferendum. ex uno lapide eum ac liberos draconumque mirabiles nexus de consilii sententia fecere summi artifices Hagesander et Polydorus et Athenodorus Rhodii" (ed. Carolus Mayhoff, Leipzig, Teubner 1897).
English translation: "Beyond these, there are not many sculptors of high repute; for, in the case of several works of very great excellence, the number of artists that have been engaged upon them has proved a considerable obstacle to the fame of each, no individual being able to engross the whole of the credit, and it being impossible to award it in due proportion to the names of the several artists combined. Such is the case with the Laocoon, for example, in the palace of the Emperor Titus, a work that may be looked upon as preferable to any other production of the art of painting or of statuary. It is sculptured from a single block, both the main figure as well as the children, and the serpents with their marvelous folds. This group was made in concert by three most eminent artists, Agesander, Polydorus, and Athenodorus, natives of Rhodes" (translated by ed. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A.).
