now in the Vatican, was found near the Bath of Titus, Rome, in 1506. It is
the work of three famous sculptors. Agesandros, Polydoros, and Athendoros,
and was executed about the beginning of the first century B.C.  Just as
the dying Gaul, for which the gallery is indebted to the same gentleman,
was the most remarkable work of the school of Pargamos, [sic] so the group
of the Laocoon has given even greater distinction to the sister school on
the Island of Rhodes. This sculpture has caused much controversy both on
the question of its date and its art. Lessing, Winckelmann, Goethe, Heine,
and others have all contributed to the elucidation of the problem.
Although executed in the Roman period, it is artistically a purely Greek
development of sculpture, representing in the highest degree anatomical
realism. It is a wonderful study of physical agony and terror, showing the
highest technical skill, but subordinating the idealism of the truest art
to realism. Laocoon was a priest of Apollo, who, having offended that
deity, and being about to offer sacrifice to Neptune, the Sun God sent two
snakes which destroyed him and his sons. The heroic statue of Mausolos has
been removed to the extreme end of the Sculpture Gallery, to make room for
this addition to the collection.