Short essay: visual analysis

Visual analysis: Laocoön and His Sons

Unit 2
5 points
About 15 minutes

You describe the visual features of a work you haven’t studied (image provided), explain how the artist’s choices shape it, and connect it to an artistic tradition, style or practice. On the exam: Section II, question 3 of 6: a short essay on a work beyond the image set (image provided), with a suggested 15 minutes.

The question and its sources

Short essay: visual analysis. Suggested time: 15 minutes. Answer each part in complete sentences. The work described is Laocoön and His Sons, a marble sculpture in the Vatican Museums, Rome. It was probably made between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE; scholars debate whether it is a Hellenistic Greek original or a Roman copy or version of one. The work is not part of the required image set. In Greek and Roman legend, Laocoön was a Trojan priest who warned his people not to bring the Greeks' wooden horse into Troy; the gods sent sea serpents to kill him and his two sons.

The work, described in words

Marble group, about 2 meters (about 7 feet) tall.

At the center, a bearded, muscular nude man half sits, half falls back onto a stone block, an altar. His torso twists and strains, and every muscle swells.

Two huge serpents coil around his body, arms and legs, and around two slender younger male figures, his sons, one on each side of him. The sons are shown at a smaller scale than the father.

The father's head tilts back and to one side. His brows are knotted, his forehead is deeply furrowed, his eyes look upward, and his mouth is open.

A serpent bites him near the hip. His left hand grips a serpent's body, and his right arm bends back above his head.

The son on the viewer's left twists and sinks as a serpent bites his side. The son on the right, less tightly bound, looks toward his father as he tries to pull a coil off his leg.

The three figures are spread across a broad, fairly shallow front, so the group reads best from one main viewpoint. Deep carving creates strong shadows between the bodies and the coils.

Source: Description written for this practice question. On the exam you would see color images of the work instead.

Suggested time: 15 minutes

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Part (a)

1 point

Describe one visual characteristic of the work.

Your answer to part (a)

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Part (b)

1 point

Describe another visual characteristic of the work.

Your answer to part (b)

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Part (c)

1 point

Using specific visual evidence, explain how the sculptor conveys suffering or intense emotion.

Your answer to part (c)

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Part (d)

1 point

Using specific visual evidence, explain how the composition creates a sense of movement or drama.

Your answer to part (d)

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Part (e)

1 point

Using specific visual or contextual evidence, explain how the work demonstrates characteristics of Hellenistic sculpture.

Your answer to part (e)

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