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Laocoön And Virgil's Suffering

200 Words1 Pages
Provided with Lessing's contra-reaction to Laocoön in his 1766 piece, appropriately subtitled "An Essay on the Limits of Painting and Poetry," emphasized the exceptionalism of each art attacking the foundation of Ut pictura poesis, considering poetry an art of the time, and paint an art of the space. For this reason, when disputing the comparison between the sculpture of Laocoön with Virgil's verse, Lessing explained that artists could not realistically illustrate the physical suffering of Laocoön and His Sons, because of its static description preferring the retention of beauty over the proper expression of pain through the one progression through time, confining itself to one moment and not pursuing a depiction of a narrative; taking visual
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