The heads of the sons of Laocoön

The two heads in the present drawing are most likely to be studies after the antique rather than from life, and they are very close to the heads of the sons of Laocoön in the celebrated sculpture discovered on the Esquiline Hill in Rome in 1506, which rapidly became one of the most famous examples of classical statuary in Europe. When Goltzius travelled to Italy in 1590-91 he made numerous studies of antique sculptures, many of which are now in the Teylers Museum in Haarlem, and among which there is a study of the entire Laocoön group (Reznicek, op. cit., no. K209; Fig. 1). The present drawing, however, is in a style markedly different from the very careful, precise chalk studies that Goltzius made during his time in Italy: its loose, confident expressiveness places it at a much later period in his career, perhaps around 1610. It is not, however, simply a copy after the Teylers drawing; and indeed no single study of the statue could account for the two heads shown on this sheet, which are actually taken from subtly different angles. They are also shown reversed, with the left-hand head corresponding to that of the right-hand son in the sculpture, and vice-versa. According to Buchelius, Goltzius owned a copy of the Laocoön, probably a bronze cast, and it is most likely that this drawing was made from that.