A bronze Laokoon group
Cast bronze group with shimmering golden brown patina on a yellow Sienna marble base. Three-figure group designed to be viewed in the round depicting the Trojan priest and his two sons as idealised nude figures wrestling with the snakes sent by Athena. Engraved to the front right of the plinth "B.BOSCHETTI ROMA". H 60.5, W of marble base 39, D19 cm.
Rome, Benedetto Boschetti foundry, mid- to third quarter 19th C.
This Greek marble group from the 1st century BC, which was already described by Pliny the Elder in antiquity, was rediscovered on the Esquiline Hill in Rome in 1506. The life-sized sculpture is now housed in the Vatican Museum. It is considered one of the most impressive works of art produced in antiquity and has captivated generations of artists and authors for the past 500 years. The arm of Laokoon, which was thought to be lost, was rediscovered by the archaeologist Ludwig Pollack in 1905. It was not outstretched, as was believed for many centuries, but bent. The idea that the arm was originally stretched out as it is in this version probably derives from the copies of the Laokoon group produced by Baccio Bandinelli (1488 or 1493 - 1560).
Benedetto Boschetti (around 1820 - around 1880) ran a successful foundry in Rome, and presumably originally also a sculpting studio. He specialised in detailed and high quality copies of antique works made using the finest materials.
Provenance
North Italian collection.