Laocoön and His Sons
Additionally, some scholars suggest that Michelangelo was inspired by the famous Greco-Roman group of "Laocoön and His Sons", excavated in 1506 in Rome, an event at which Michelangelo is believed to have been present . The pose of the nude figure in the background immediately behind Saint Joseph, to our right, appears to have been influenced by the twisting contortions of the figures captured by the serpent in the Laocoön (again, if this were so, it would alter the date of the Doni Tondo by several years).