Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae: Laocoon
16th century
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
sheet: 22 1/16 x 16 15/16 in. (56.1 x 43 cm) plate: 19 3/16 x 12 11/16 in. (48.7 x 32.2 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1941
Accession Number
41.72(2.77)
Tags
Art Historical Context
Welcome to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, where you'll find *Speculum Romanae Magnificent: Laocoon*, a striking 16th-century engraving French artist Nicolas Beatrizet. This-scale print (sheet: 22 1/16 x 16 15/16 in.) captures the dramatic torment of the ancient Laocoön statue—a Trojan priest and his sons entwined by massive sea serpents. Beatrizet, active in Rome, masterfully reproduced this iconic Hellenistic sculpture, discovered in 1506, using the precise intaglio technique of engraving. By incising lines into a metal plate and inking them, he achieved intr...