Laocoön
1540/45
Medium
Woodcut printed in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image/block: 27.3 × 40.7 cm (10 3/4 × 16 1/16 in.); Sheet: 27.8 × 40.7 cm (11 × 16 1/16 in.)
Classification
woodcut
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
20729
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Niccolò Boldrini’s parody of the Hellenistic Laöcoon sculpture, rediscovered in 1506, turns the writhing tragic figures into a trio of hirsute apes. Boldrini frequently worked from drawings by Titian. This particularly comedic composition suggests that the painter was lampooning the smaller-scale copies based on the Laöcoon that Titian could have seen in Venice. Alternately, the print could reference the contemporary debate over the anatomical similarities between humans and apes, in which Andre...