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The powerful and enigmatic Laocoön
is El Greco's only surviving treatment of a
mythological subject. The story relates how the
hero, a priest in Troy, attempted to warn his
countrymen of the Trojan Horse, whose hollow body
concealed Greek soldiers. Laocoön was punished
by the gods for interfering with their will. The
gods sent serpents out of the sea to kill him and
his two sons.
A famous ancient sculpture of Laocoön,
which El Greco must have seen, was unearthed in
Rome in 1506. Like it, El Greco's painting depicts
the climactic moment when the bearded priest
struggles for life. One son lies dead, and the
other will soon succumb. But El Greco placed these
mythological characters and the Trojan Horse
against the backdrop of Toledo. At the right stand
two figures, perhaps gods viewing the scene. They
are complicated by a third head and the leg of an
unfinished figure. These mysterious figures and the
view of Toledo have prompted many speculations
about El Greco's intention. Is this a reference to
a contemporary religious controversy, a moralizing
allegory, or an allusion to the tradition that
Toledo was founded by descendants of the Trojan
heroes? Probably it is impossible to know. It may
simply be that El Greco was motivated to match the
virtuosity of a famous ancient statue with his own
masterful invention.
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