Laocoön and His Sons

The most influential sculpture in Western art — the Trojan priest and his sons crushed by sea serpents. Discovered in a Roman vineyard in 1506; Michelangelo ran to see it the day it was unearthed and called it 'a singular miracle of art.' It directly shaped the twisted, expressive bodies of the Sistine ceiling and the entire Mannerist tradition. Every art history student knows it from reproductions — seeing it in person at 2.42 metres is a completely different experience.