Laocoön

c. 1610–14

Oil on canvas, 137.5 × 172.5 cm · National Gallery of Art, Washington

El Greco’s only known mythological painting, made in his last years and probably still in his studio when he died. He set the story outside Toledo, the city where he lived.

Elongated nude figures wrestle snakes on a rocky bank.
A tiny horse trots toward a city of pink walls: Toledo standing in for Troy.
The figures at right are unfinished; a 1955 cleaning revealed an extra head and leg.
Bought by the Kress Foundation and given to the gallery in 1946.

The Trojan priest Laocoön warned against the Greeks’ wooden horse. Sea serpents sent by the gods killed him and his sons, and the Trojans took the horse inside.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · CC0