Laocoonte (Copy of)

Plaster cast from a marble original by the sculptors Hagesandros, Polydoros and Athenadoros, mid-1st century BC preserved in the Vatican Museums. There are two specimens of the Laocoon cast recorded as present in Bologna. The first sent by Marsili, the second donated by Benedict XIV in 1755. Only one has come down to us, in the version, more widespread among the copies, without the figures of the sons and with the right arm of Laocoon raised high, as in the restoration of Montorsoli. The Bolognese specimen, of good quality, but badly damaged before the recent restoration, of which it is difficult - in the current state of knowledge - to identify the exact origin, is however attributable to not later than the middle of the eighteenth century.