lost – with the majority being melted to recover the material. Laocoön Discovered in Rome in 1506 and seen immediately by Michelangelo, beginning its huge influence on Renaissance and Baroque art. Laocoön, strangled by snakes, tries desperately to loosen their grip without affording a glance at his dying sons. The group is one of very few non-architectural ancient sculptures that can be identified with those mentioned by ancient writers. It is attributed by Pliny the Elder to the Rhodian sculptors Agesander, Athenodoros, and Polydorus. Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who first articulated the difference between Greek, Greco-Roman and Roman art, drew inspiration from the Laocoön. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing based many of the ideas in his 'Laocoon' (1766) on Winckelmann's views on harmony and expression in the visual arts. Sperlonga The fragmentary Sperlonga sculptures are another series of "baroque" sculptures in the Hellenistic style, perhaps made for the Emperor Tiberius, who was certainly present at the collapse of the seaside grotto in southern Italy that they decorated. The inscriptions suggest the same sculptors made it who made the Laocoön group, or possibly their relations. "Rococo" The "Baroque" traits in Hellenistic art, predominately sculpture, have been contrasted with a contemporary trend that has been described as "Rococo". The concept of a Hellenistic "Rococo" was coined by Wilhelm Klein in the early 20th century. Unlike the dramatic "Baroque" sculptures, the "Rococo" trend emphasized playfull motifs, such as satyrs and nymphs. Wilhelm Klein considered the sculpture group "The Invitation to the Dance" to be a prime example of the trend. Also lighthearted depictions of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and Eros, were seen as typical (as seen, for instance, in the so-called Slipper Slapper Group depicted below). It has later been argued that the preference for the "Rococo" motifs in Hellenistic sculpture can be tied to a changed use of sculpture in general. Private sculpture collecting became more common during the later Hellenistic period, and in such collections there seems to have been a preference for the kinds of motifs characterized as "Rococo". Neo-Attic From the 2nd century the Neo-Attic or Neo-Classical style is seen by different scholars as either a reaction to baroque excesses, returning to a version of Classical style, or as a continuation of the traditional style for cult statues. Workshops in the style became mainly producers of copies for the Roman market, which preferred copies of Classical rather than Hellenistic pieces. Paintings