LAO 



A85 



LAO 



LANGUEDOC. See FRANCE, vol. ix. p. 676,679, 

 705. 



LANTERV. MAGIC. See OPTICS. 



I UK 'DOS', in fabulous history, the son, it is said, 

 of Priam and Hecuba, and prie>t of Apollo. He op- 

 posed the design of the Trojans, to admit within their 

 besiegeil city the wooden horse, containing the crafty 

 Ulysses and the other Greeks ; and even dared to lance 

 a dart at this fatal machine. But the artifice of Sinon, 

 aided by the infatuation of the Trojans, prevailed. At 

 the very moment, when this insidious machine was 

 about to be introduced within the wall* of Troy, and 

 while Laocoon was in the act of sacrificing to Neptune, 

 two enormous serpent* issued from the sea, and attack- 

 ed his two sons, who stood next to the altar. Having 

 attempted to defend his sons, the serpents coiled them- 

 selves round him and his children, squeezed them in 

 their complicated wreaths, and occasioned them all to 

 expire in the greatest agoniej. 



The art of antiquity has conferred immortality upon 

 this fabulous event, by one of the noblest monuments 

 of Grecian sculpture, executed in marble by Agisander, 

 Polydorus, and Athenadorus, the three famous artists 

 of Rhode*. This monument was found at Rome, in the 

 naw of the palace of Titus, in the beginning of the 

 century, under the 'pontificate of Julius II. and af- 

 terward* deposited in the Farnese palace. When Italy 

 wa overrun by the French during the late revolution, 

 this wonderful monument of ancient art was, with many 

 others, removed from the Vatican, and placed in the 

 llmeuin of Art* at Paris. Since their more recent re- 

 verse*, however, it ha* been restored to it* former 

 owners. 



Of the fact which ha* been so nobly represented by 

 the effort* of the sculptor, Virgil ha* given us the fol- 

 lowing poetical description : 



Sfffrxi nflrimt ttterqae 

 ImfHtmt, ft to 



il. Hi nib jyMMln cimm 

 Trrgm t*A, mfcnmt cafUt rt cm-ir**, .Ufa. 



/Ex. b. ii. r. 199, ft teq. 



The (tatue, which has been generally esteemed as one 

 of the finest remain* of antiquity, exhibits the most 

 astonishing dignity and tranquillity of mind, in the 

 midst of the most excruciating torment*. Of this group, 

 I'lmy says, (lib. 56, J 5.) " that which haj been injuri- 

 ou* to the fame of certain individuals, in spite of the 

 excellence of their productions, is the circumstance of 

 their having worked together on the same piece ; since 

 one alone cannot merit the honour of the whole, and 

 we do not chooce the trouble of naming them all. Such 

 is the case respecting the Laocoon. in the palace of the 

 amptfor Titus, which must be preferred to all the effort* 

 of the painter's and of the statuary's art. Agtsunder, 

 ru, and Athenodorui, celebrated sculptors of 

 Jjh^iVa, united their joint abilities, in forming out of a 

 Mngle block the group of the father and his sons, 

 bound together by the beautiful t'uM- of the serpents." 

 The Laocoon, according to Dr. Gillies, may be regard- 

 ed M the triumph of Grecian sculpture ; since bodily 

 pain, the grossest and most ungovernable of all our 

 p**iuns, and that pain united with anguish and torture 

 of mind, are yet exprewcd wah <ucli propriety and dig- 

 as afford le*?un* of fortitude superior to any taught 

 c school* of philosophy. The hornhle shriek 

 Luocoon emits, is a proper circumstam.v 

 ibr poetry, which speaks to the fancy by image? and 

 idea* borrowed from all the sense*, and has a thousand 



VOL. XII. PAT It. 



ways of ennobling its object ; but the expression of the 

 shriek would have totally degraded the statue. It is 

 softened, therefore, into a patient sigh, with the eyes 

 turned to heaven in search of relief. The intolerable 

 agony of suffering nature is represented in the lower 

 parts, and particularly in the extremities of the body ; 

 but the manly breast struggles against calamity. The 

 contention is still more plainly perceived in his furrow, 

 ed forehead ; and his languishing paternal eye demands 

 assistance, less for himself than for his miserable chil- 

 dren, who look up to him for help. 



A variety of critical disquisitions have been written, 

 for the purpose of ascertaining to what period of the 

 arts this chefd'auvre belongs. Winkelmann and Vis- 

 conti ascribed it to the most brilliant period of the 

 Greeks ; while Lessing, on the other hand, referred it 

 to the times of the first Roman emperors. Visconti has 

 since gone over to the opinion of Lessing, though he 

 proceeds upon different grounds. Pliny says, the group 

 wa* sculptured out of a single block ; Raphael, how- 

 ever, discovered three ; Mengs counted five ; and it 

 appears in reality to consist of six, including the plinth 

 on which the altar rests, anil to which the other pieces 

 of the block are attached. The right arm of the father, 

 and two of the arms of the children, are wanting. 

 These deficiencies have been supplied by arms, mould- 

 ed on the group in plaster of Paris. See Gillies' Hist, 

 of Greece, ii. 1 77 ; Winkelmann's Inediled Monuments ; 

 Lessing's Laocoon / the Descrijttion of the Ancient Mo- 

 numents in the Museum Xn/iolron, published at Paris in 

 1805 ; and Plate CCXXXIV. Fig. 1. of this work, (z) 



LAON, the LamlitnHm of the Romans, is a town of 

 France, and the chief place of a district in the depart- 

 ment of the Aisne. It is beautifully situated on the 

 summit of a hill with very precipitous flanks, and is seen 

 on all tides at the distance of seven or eight leagues. 

 The town covers the greater part of the level summit. 

 An old castle occupies another part of it ; and on one 

 plice, the top branches out into two arms on the side 

 towards Soisson, from which it got the name oi Bibrnx. 

 ( in one of these arms, are the ruins of an ancient ab- 

 bey, the outer walls of which still remain ; and the 

 hollow between them is covered with vines. The walls 

 of Laon are not in good repair. There is a fine mall 

 without the walls, and a delightful walk around them, 

 from which there is a most extensive view. There is 

 also a mall with young trees stretching across the sum- 

 mit, and separating the town from the old castle. 



The streets of Laon are narrow and dirty, and th 

 houses appear poor and gloomy. The principal orna- 

 ment of the town is the cathedral, which is a large and 

 splendid building, with five very lofty towers. The 

 opm buttresses, and the long open windows in the 

 fiqu.irc towers, give a peculiar air of lightness to the 

 building when seen from a short distance. But at a 

 considerable distance, and particularly in the night, 

 they give it the appearance of a scaffolding, the light 

 coming through in every direction. The great portal 

 is not unlike that of Rheims ; but it is less elegant in 

 the sculptures. There is a small spire on the south 

 tower of the cathedral. The interior of the cathedral 

 is very fine. In the nave, are ten circular pillars on 

 each side with capitals ; two of them on each side hav- 

 ing four small columns round it. Above the choir, is a 

 most magnificent circular window of painted glass. 

 There is another fine circular window in the nave, 

 above an excellent organ, and at each end of the trail- 

 srpt. On the north side of the nave, in a small aisle, 

 are deposited the remains of General St. Priest, who. 

 4 E 



