Laocoön

In 1812 the Brera academy in Milan set its competitors a subject every student knew by heart, the Trojan priest Laocoon and his sons killed by sea serpents. The ancient marble group of that scene had stood in the Vatican for nearly three centuries, but in 1812 it was not there. Napoleon's commissioners had carried it to Paris in 1798 under a treaty imposed on the pope, and it stayed until 1816. Hayez was 21 and working in Rome, encouraged by the sculptor Antonio Canova. Rather than copy the statue he spread the story out, giving the priest a crowd of figures around him instead of the closed knot of the marble. The judges split the prize between him and another competitor, which infuriated Leopoldo Cicognara, the art historian who had been pushing his career.