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Laocoon

Chapter 1: Laocoon. An Essay upon the Limits of Painting and Poetry. WITH REMARKS ILLUSTRATIVE OF VARIOUS POINTS IN THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART.
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About This Book

This essay examines the distinctive capacities and limits of visual and literary arts, arguing that painting and sculpture imitate bodies and forms presented simultaneously in space while poetry imitates actions and processes unfolding in time. The author analyzes classical examples, notably a famous sculptural group depicting a suffering figure entwined by serpents, to illustrate how medium-specific laws determine appropriate expression. The text critiques modern critics who conflate artistic modes, surveys ancient aesthetic principles, and offers practical guidelines about description, allegory, and the proper relation between subject matter and the expressive means of each art.

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Title: Laocoon

An essay upon the limits of painting and poetry. With remarks illustrative of various points in the history of ancient art.

Author: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Translator: Ellen Frothingham

Release date: February 29, 2024 [eBook #73078]

Language: English

Original publication: Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1873

Credits: Richard Tonsing, Tim Lindell, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

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Transcriber’s Note:

New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.

Laocoon.
An Essay upon the Limits of Painting and Poetry.
WITH REMARKS ILLUSTRATIVE OF VARIOUS POINTS IN THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART.

BY
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING.
TRANSLATED BY ELLEN FROTHINGHAM.
BOSTON:
ROBERTS BROTHERS.
1890.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by
ROBERTS BROTHERS,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
University Press:
John Wilson & Son, Cambridge.