Laocoön and His Sons

 

Cribbed from Wikipedia, (may Athena forgive me…)

The statue of Laocoön and His Sons, also called the Laocoön Group (Italian: Gruppo del Laocoonte), has been one of the most famous ancient sculptures since it was excavated in Rome in 1506 and put on public display in the Vatican Museums, where it remains today. The statue is very likely the same one that was praised in the highest terms by Pliny the Elder, the main Roman writer on art. The figures in the statue are nearly life-sized, with the entire group measuring just over 6 ft 7 in in height. The sculpture depicts the Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus being attacked by sea serpents.

Nigel Spivey as called The Laocoön Group "the prototypical icon of human agony" in Western art.

SEE THIS OBJECT ON THE VATICAN MUSEUM’S WEBSITE