The Baroque artist, Peter Paul Rubens
(1577 - 1640), is credited with bringing the Baroque style to northern
Europe, when he returned to Antwerp after eight years studying antiquities
and Renaissance masterpieces in Italy.
While visiting Rome between 1602-03
and 1605-08, Rubens made some 15 drawings of the Laocoon, studying the muscular body
of Laocoon himself, as well as the violent action and pathos expressed by
the sculpture's figures.
In a sketch of the back of Laocoon,
Rubens studies the desperate struggle of Laocoon to free himself from the
snakes. Rubens' version of the sculpture emphasizes the excitement
and agitation of the figure, giving it even more movement and muscularity
than is seen in the ancient sculpture. His sketch of the younger son
is less a study of struggle than it is one of hopeless resignation.
The young son is clearly not a match for the massive snake and
Rubens emphasizes the figure's helplessness in this death struggle.
