Ancient Rome Reborn in the Renaissance

The 500th Anniversary of the Rediscovery of the Laocoon

On January 14, 1506, a momentous discovery was made in the city of Rome. A farmer digging in his vineyard, near the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, began to uncover pieces of an ancient sculpture. The pieces were quickly identified as belonging to the Laocoon, a sculpture that had been famous in antiquity.

After its discovery, the Laocoon quickly made its way into the Vatican collection of antiquities. There, for centuries, it has been drawn and admired by artists as diverse as Michelangelo, Titian, El Greco, Rubens, and Gericault - all of whom were influenced by the work's powerful, twisting movement and by its highly defined anatomy.

January 14, 2006, marks the 500th anniversary of the rediscovery of the Laocoon. In celebration of this important anniversary, we've posted an article about the Laocoon on our website. And for those of you who want to know even more, there's also a slidehow about the impact of this ancient sculpture on the history of western art.

Rediscovery of the Laocoon: Article and Slideshow