Laocoon

El Greco painted Laocoon around 1610-14, in Toledo, Spain, where he had lived and worked since 1577. He was about 70 years old and had been painting for over four decades, producing the elongated, twisting figures and the dramatic, emotional compositions that are his signature. Laocoon is his only known mythological painting, and it is one of the last works he completed before his death in 1614. The painting shows the death of Laocoon, a Trojan priest who warned his people not to accept the wooden horse from the Greeks. According to legend, the gods sent sea serpents to kill Laocoon and his two sons as punishment for his warning. El Greco painted the scene with the three figures writhing on the ground, their bodies entangled with the serpents. The city of Toledo, not Troy, appears in the background, with its cathedral and its bridge visible against the sky. El Greco set the scene in his adopted home of Toledo rather than in ancient Troy. This was not a mistake but a deliberate choice. El Greco believed that art should engage the mind and not just copy nature, and he used the landscape of Toledo as a symbol for the eternal city, the setting for a story that transcended its historical moment. The cathedral of Toledo, visible in the background, is the most prominent building in the painting, and it serves as a reminder that the story of Laocoon is not just a myth but a meditation on faith and suffering. The painting is based on the famous ancient marble sculpture of Laocoon and his sons, which was unearthed in Rome in 1506 and became one of the most influential artworks of the Renaissance. El Greco would have known the sculpture from his years in Rome, where he studied from 1570 to 1577. But where the sculpture shows the figures in a single, frozen moment of agony, El Greco's painting shows them in a state of continuous, twisting motion. The bodies are elongated, the limbs stretched beyond natural proportions, and the colors are unnatural and expressive. Oil on canvas, 137 by 172 centimeters. El Greco painted with long, fluid strokes, building the figures in layers of cool blue and warm flesh tone. The serpents are painted in dark, sinuous strokes of brown and green, which wind around the bodies and create a pattern of curves across the canvas. The sky is painted in turbulent layers of gray and white, with the clouds suggesting the wrath of the gods. The city of Toledo is painted in the background, its buildings reduced to geometric shapes of gray and brown. The surface has the rich, worked quality of a painting built over many sessions. The horizontal format and dramatic palette make this print work well in a living room, study, or office. The blues, grays, and warm flesh tones pair with white walls, dark wood, and rooms with a serious or dramatic mood. The 18x24 size is the best choice, as the composition needs width to read. The painting has a powerful, unsettling quality that commands attention in any room. The painting entered the National Gallery of Art in Washington as part of the Samuel H. Kress Collection. This is a public domain artwork, from the National Gallery of Art, Washington. The image is released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0). We print it on archival matte paper at sizes from 8x10 to 18x24 inches, framed or unframed.