Lessing’s Laocoon as Analytical Instrument
Luca Giuliani evaluates Laocoon as an ‘analytical tool’ for twenty-first-century classical archaeology. In doing so, he returns to some of the same literary case studies that so engrossed Lessing 250 years ago—and none more so than Homer’s Iliad. By probing Lessing’s theories of the respective workings of art and text, and exploring them in the context of ancient depictions of the Iliad (especially seventh- and sixth-century BC vase-paintings), the chapter explores both the virtues and the problems of Lessing’s account. As Giuliani argues, this historical perspective can help us formulate the analytical importance of Lessing’s framework; at the same time, the perspective of ancient art can help us see how Lessing’s text is as much a treatise against as about the visual arts.