Laocoön, after antiquity c. 19th century

Editor: Here we have Settari’s "Laocoön, after antiquity," a small plaster relief. It looks so delicate, almost ghostly. What do you make of it? Curator: It’s a fascinating echo, isn’t it? The original Laocoön is all dramatic marble and writhing agony, and this…this feels like a whisper of that pain. Like a half-remembered dream. Maybe it's trying to distill the essence of suffering, removing the bombast? Editor: I never thought of it as a distillation, more like a souvenir. Curator: Perhaps it’s both. A reminder of mortality, elegantly framed. What do you think it tells us about how we remember the past? Editor: It’s strange to consider something so small could hold such big ideas. Curator: Precisely! Art, like memory, can be both intimate and monumental.