Laocoön

The Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons struggle with snakes. El Greco places the ancient story before Toledo, where he lived and worked. This is his only known mythological painting. A familiar Spanish city becomes the setting of an ancient calamity, although the precise reason for this transfer remains open to interpretation.

White-bearded Laocoön lies on rocks, holding a snake near his head. Legs spread widely and torso turns towards us. Deep grey shadows cut through pale skin. Sharp transitions make the body an intricate system of bends and emphasise the physical struggle.

The son on the left arches backwards, stretching a snake between his hands. His long bodily curve differs from the serpent’s closed loop. Both forms balance on the narrow support of his feet. Their instability unsettles the space without requiring an invented thought for his face.

The other son lies on his back with his head towards us. His body is strongly foreshortened, so knees seem high and the face is almost hidden. This position disrupts an ordinary reading of the human figure. One group combines several apparently incompatible directions.

A small horse approaches the city gate. Beside the huge foreground figures it is almost inconspicuous. The museum connects it with the Trojan Horse against which Laocoön warned. The detail links the foreground event with the city’s subsequent fate and extends the narrative’s timescale.

Other nude figures stand on the right. Outlines overlap, and another turned face appears behind two heads. They remain apart from the main struggle. Their uncertain identities make the limits of knowledge part of our encounter with this particular, possibly unfinished painting.

The ancient Laocoön sculpture was found in Rome in 1506 and became an important European artistic model. El Greco does not reproduce its composition literally. He separates the figures, opens a city view between them and alters proportions. A recognised classical subject becomes material for a substantially different artistic solution.