It is part of a collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C..[1] The painting depicts the Greek and Roman mythological story of the deaths of Laocoön, a Trojan priest of Poseidon, and his two sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus.

[3] El Greco's painting deliberately breaks away from the balance and harmony of Renaissance art with its strong emotional atmosphere and distorted figures.

Laocoön was killed by divine execution from the gods, who supported the Greeks in the Trojan War and sent the sea serpents as punishment.

Laocoön sprawls in a strange position, unnaturally stretching out his leg in agony toward the arched, straining body of his son.

In the painting, the Trojan horse moves towards the city, a reminder of Laocoön's failed attempt to convince his countrymen of the trap.

Dominated by turbulent shades of grey and swirling clouds, the threatening sky looms over Toledo and creates an eerie background that adds to the suffering of the foreground.

After his initial training as a Byzantine icon painter in his homeland Crete, El Greco studied in Venice and Rome, where he experimented with the Venetian "colorito" and Renaissance compositional techniques.

[8] The chaos and spiritual uncertainty of the era caused Mannerist painters to reject the balance and proportionality of High Renaissance artists like Michelangelo and instead portray elongated figures.

Mannerism reached its height with El Greco, as seen in the distorted, contorted figures of Laocoön and his sons and the hyper elegance of the gods on the right.