Laocoön

This isn't your typical heroic Greek myth painting. For starters, the main event is a massive fail. The fellow on the ground is Laocoön, a Trojan priest, and he's having a very, very bad day. He was the one who famously said, "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts," specifically referring to that giant wooden horse you can see trotting toward the city. The gods, who were pro-Greek, weren't thrilled with this spoiler, so they sent sea serpents to assassinate him and his sons. So much for trying to save your city. What's really odd is that the city in the background isn't Troy. It's Toledo, Spain, the artist's adopted hometown. Why the switch? No one knows for sure, but theories range from a warning to the locals against some modern-day treachery to a commentary on the Spanish Inquisition. It's a classic case of an artist being frustratingly vague. Compositionally, the scene is pure turmoil. The writhing, unnaturally long bodies are a hallmark of the Mannerist style, designed to be more about emotion than boring old reality. With its lurid colors and stormy sky, the whole scene feels like a nightmare. The figures are all caught in their own separate bubbles of agony, and the two unfinished figures on the right might be the gods, just chilling and watching the tragedy they orchestrated unfold. It’s a strange, haunting work, the only mythological scene the artist ever painted, and he certainly made it a memorable one.