Johann Wolfgang von Goethe admired the Laocoon sculptural group in the Vatican Museums during his stay in Rome on his “Italian Journey” (1786-1788). He was struck by the grandeur and vitality of the sculpture and its ability to represent pain in a noble and restrained manner. With great enthusiasm, he emphasized how it embodied an ideal of classical beauty that conveys suffering without lapsing into emotional excess. In his writings, he recounted how the statue surpassed any reproduction or description, and how his direct experience was essential to fully understand its expressive power.
The Laocoon Group is an icon of Hellenistic art, probably born in Rhodes in the 2nd-1st century B.C., at a time when sculpture sought to portray the ultimate in drama and emotion. Goethe, following Lessing, notes how Laocoon avoids the cry of despair in order to maintain a certain dignity. In this balance between emotion and rationality he identifies a distinguishing characteristic of Greek art and sees in Laocoon a symbol of the greatness of classical art, capable of representing human pain with beauty and measure, a balance he himself sought to pursue in his poetic and theoretical work.
The Laocoon Group has influenced thinkers, writers and artists of different ages, becoming a symbol of human suffering, classical beauty and the struggle against fate. Its interpretation has evolved over time from a model of aesthetic harmony (Winckelmann) to an existential and psychological symbol (Freud, Rilke).
