The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts acquire rare Laocoön Porcelain by Filippo Tagliolini

16 January 2024

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has acquired a rare sculpture modelled by Filippo Tagliolini for the Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea in Naples, made in about 1785.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has acquired a rare sculpture modelled by Filippo Tagliolini for the Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea in Naples, made in about 1785. Worked in white biscuit porcelain, it shows the Trojan priest Laocoön and his two sons in the grip of the sea serpents, following closely the antique marble group that came to light in Rome in 1506 and stands today in the Vatican. It enters a collection of European art that runs from the early medieval period to the twentieth century.