Christoph Schmälzle

Laokoon in der Frühen Neuzeit
[Laocoön in the Early Modern Period]

Textband (512 S.) und Bildband (304 S.)
Wallstein, Göttingen 2018
ISBN 978-3-86600-254-8

Like almost no other work of art, the ancient Laocoön Group inspires an abundance of diverging interpretations. The masterpiece, which was highly regarded by Plinius the Elder, depicts the mortal agony of a priest and his sons who have been overwhelmed by godsent snakes at the altar. For Winckelmann and Lessing, the group, which was rediscovered in Rome in 1506, embodies a suffering alleviated through composure and beauty. At the academies of the Early Modern Period, however, it comes as a model for the expression of affect—the cries of pain that Vergil mentions in his Aeneis are also attributed to the dying priest. The ‘baroque’ perspective dominates for a period of 250 years before it is replaced by the neo-classicistic ideal of dampening of affect.

For the first time, a monograph presents these widely forgotten layers of heritage in their correlation to one another. The semiotic comparative approach, which shaped the debate from the 18th century onward, is complemented by an abundance of further aspects and questions.

The book analyzes the artistic reflexes of the Laocoön myth prior to the rediscovery of the group as well as the development of a Laocoön iconography in the 16th and 17th century which was independent from its antique model.

The focus lies on the major importance that the Laocoön exemplum occupies in both the art and art theory of the Counterreformation as well as within the curriculum of the early modern Roman and Parisian academies. The reappraisal of broad, formerly disregarded stocks of material as well as the publication of images that previously received no attention in research are particularly noteworthy. The author fully translated citations from Latin, Italian, French, and English into German.

Media Response

03 Apr 2020
Christoph Schmälzle, Laokoon in der Frühen Neuzeit

Review by Elisabeth Décultot, in: Arbitrium 38.1 (2020), 69–72

28 Sep 2018
Seufzt er denn unter dieser tödlichen Umschlingung?

Offene Pathosformel: Christoph Schmälzle führt durch die Rezeptionsgeschichte des vatikanischen Laokoon
Review by Michail Chatzidakis, in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Nr. 226, 28 Sep 2018, 10