A reduced bronze version of the Laocoon, one of the most celebrated marbles from Roman antiquity, discovered near the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, on 14th January 1506. It was bought by Pope Julius II and placed in the Belvedere. The marble was widely reproduced from the Renaissance. It depicts Lacoon and his sons engaged in a desperate fight with snakes, sent by the goddess Minerva to kill them. This bronze has a red orange patina and is mounted on an ebonised wood plinth.