The ‘aura’ of the original?

Chiara Marabelli - PhD Student

I took this picture in October 2019, during a placement at the Vatican Museums.

Every day, thousands of visitors from all over the world crowded the Octagonal Court to meet one of the most iconic sculptures of antiquity, the group of Laocoön, a Roman marble version of a Greek model, made of bronze, that did not survive. The experience is definitely overwhelming.

While making my way through the mass, I wondered whether people were aware of the actual nature of copy of the object. Indeed, originality is in the eyes of the beholder.