Laocoon

By Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Book Overview

Laocoon: An Essay on the Limits of Painting and Poetry, by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, is a foundational work of aesthetic theory. Published in 1766, it explores the distinctions between visual and literary art, arguing that each medium has its own unique strengths and limitations. Lessing uses the famous sculpture of Laocoon and his sons as a starting point to examine how painting and sculpture should focus on depicting actions and bodies, while poetry is better suited for expressing emotions and narratives over time.

Lessing's analysis delves into the principles of classical art and literature, offering profound insights into the nature of artistic expression and perception. This essay remains a significant contribution to the fields of art criticism, literary theory, and philosophy, influencing generations of artists, writers, and thinkers. "Laocoon" continues to be studied for its rigorous examination of the aesthetic principles that govern the arts.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1141954303
• ISBN13: 9781141954308
• Release Date: January 2010
• Publisher: Nabu Press
• Length: 438 Pages
• Weight: 1.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Artistic Portrayal of Time and Space

"..succession in time is the province of the poet, co-existence in space that of the artist." This insightful and compellng excursion into comparative aesthetics led me to choose comparative literature as a graduate study and profession. It argues eloquently that the writer's ability to show events both simultaneously and in succession transcends in overall impact the painter's restriction of having to show objects that co-exist in space. In the "shield of Achilles" episode in Homer's Iliad, the poet is able to paint a "moving picture" that subsumes art into words at the same time that it praises the sculptor's work. The poet, moreover, can deal with both the visible and the invisible. All who have chosen the vocation of writing should take this book to a beach resort and read it in tranquility.

The Godfather of Art Criticism

If you are of the notion that the tide is turning in aesthetics once again, and you're right, then G.E. Lessing's seminal Laocoon: An Essay on the Limits of Painting and Poetry is once again a necessary starting point. Edward A. McCormick has finally given English speaking academians a satisfactory translation of this tricky and ultimately unrealized work. Lessing had originally planned to survey music and dance as well. Nevertheless, Laocoon commands a formidable position in the history of letters as a breakthrough vision in aesthetics and the turning point of our notions about Western art. The author's speculations about the origin of the masterpiece, for which the essay is named, throwing his hat in the ring with commentators from Pliny to Winckelmann, gradually gives way to an inspired meditation on Homer and the greater issues at hand: What are the distinguishing characteristics of art? of poetry? G.E. Lessing's investigations show that the answers to these questions aren't as self evident as they seem. Henceforth, each practice's direction since has been the gradual essentializing of the scope of the respective mediums, Mallarme and Mondrian for instance. Immpressively, in Laocoon Lessing turns out not only to be a forerunner of modernism but also a sophisticated semiotician long before Saussure. Edward A. McCormick's edition of Laocoon, with a short bio and extra bonus of a foreword by Michael Fried, is a keystone work for any canonical study in aesthetics and the art of the West. 7/9/00