Farnese Bull

Last updated

The Farnese Bull Farnese Bull MAN Napoli Inv6002 n01.jpg
The Farnese Bull

The Farnese Bull (Italian : Toro Farnese), formerly in the Farnese collection in Rome, is a massive Roman elaborated copy of a Hellenistic sculpture. It is the largest single sculpture yet recovered from antiquity. Along with the rest of the Farnese antiquities, it has been since 1826 in the collection of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale Napoli in Naples, inv. no. 6002, though in recent years sometimes displayed at the Museo di Capodimonte across the city. The sculpture in Naples is much restored, and includes around the base a child, a dog, and other animals not apparently in the original composition, which is known from versions in other media. [1]

Contents

Pliny the Elder mentions what was presumably the prime version of it as the work of the Rhodian artists Apollonius of Tralles and his brother Tauriscus, stating that it was commissioned at the end of the 2nd century BC and carved from just one whole block of marble. It was imported from Rhodes as part of the remarkable collection of artwork and sculpture owned by Asinius Pollio, a Roman politician who lived during the years between the Republic and the Principate. [2]

This colossal marble sculptural group represents the myth of Dirce, first wife of Lykos, King of Thebes. She was tied to a wild bull by Amphion and Zethus, the sons of Antiope, who wanted to punish Dirce for the ill-treatment inflicted on their mother.

Rediscovery and reconstruction

Engravings such as this, dated 1633, made the image familiar. CL Farnesian Bull.jpg
Engravings such as this, dated 1633, made the image familiar.

The group was unearthed in 1546 during excavations at gymnasium of the Roman Baths of Caracalla, commissioned by Pope Paul III in the hope of finding ancient sculptures to adorn the Palazzo Farnese, the Farnese family's palatial residence in Rome. This sculpture is dated to the Severian period (A.D. 222-235). [3]

Unlike the discoveries of the Farnese Hercules and the Latin Hercules from this excavation, which were documented as to their location, the only reference to this grouping is from a 1595 engraving by Etienne du Perac of the ruins of the Baths, showing the end of the east palestra, which states: "...in the time of Paul III many beautiful fragments of statues and animals were found that were all in one piece in antiquity ... and Cardinal Farnese had [it] erected now in his Palazzo." [4]

The group underwent a substantial restoration in the 16th century, when Michelangelo planned to use it for a fountain to be installed at the centre of a garden between Palazzo Farnese and the Villa Farnesina. [5] It also could have been adapted for this use soon after it was found, which is supported by descriptions from the Renaissance era. [6] Further restorations were made in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1883, the original sculpture was noted by Domenico Monaco, curator of the (then) National Museum in Naples, to have been carved from a block of marble measuring 3.66 m × 2.75 m ("12 ft by 9 ft."); [7] after its restorations, the work's perimeter is approximately 3.3 m (10'10") on each side and over 4 m (13') high. As it is today, the sculpture weighs 21.8 tonnes (24 short tons). [8]

It has been argued that the sculpture noted by Pliny in his Natural History could not be the Farnese Bull, which is instead a 3rd-century AD Roman version, made specifically for Caracalla's Baths. [8] [9] Other scholars dispute this, arguing that since the work was originally located in the nearby Horti Asiniani, or Asiniani gardens, which the Pollio family owned, to have commissioned a copy specifically for the Baths would have meant both pieces would have been displayed in very close proximity. [10]

It is shown in the 1954 film Journey to Italy along with the Farnese Hercules. Henry Peacham, in The Compleat Gentleman, says that it "out-strippeth all other Statues in the world for greatnesse and workemanship". [11]


Notes

  1. Smith, 108
  2. Pliny the Elder, Natural History, xxxvi.33-34; Smith, 108
  3. Stefano De Caro, The National Archaeological Museum of Naples (Napoli: Electa, 2001), p. 334.
  4. Rudolpho Lanciani, Forma Urbis Romae, 1893-1901, vol. II, 201, fig. 129.
  5. Stefano De Caro, The National Archaeological Museum of Naples (2001), p. 334.
  6. E. Pozzi, (ed), Il Toro Farnese; "La montagna di marmo" tra Roma e Napoli, 1991, p. 63.
  7. Monaco, Domenico (1883). A Complete Handbook to the National Museum in Naples, According to the New Arrangement. Translated by Rolfe, Eustace Neville (3rd ed.). William Clowes and Sons. p. 27. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
  8. 1 2 Haskell, Francis; Penny, Nicholas (1981). Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Antique Sculpture 1500–1900. Yale University Press. ISBN   978-0-300-02913-0.
  9. Miranda Marvin, "Freestanding Sculpture in the Baths of Caracalla, American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 87, No. 3, Jul., 1983, p. 380.
  10. E. La Rocca, "Artisti rodici negli horti romani", CIMA, 1998, p. 203-274.
  11. Andrews, Robyn P. (1982). A Critical Edition of The Compleat Gentleman (1622) by Henry Peacham (PDF). p. 119. Retrieved 12 April 2023.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dirce</span> Greek mythological Theban princess

Dirce was a queen of Thebes as the wife of Lycus in Greek mythology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palazzo Farnese</span> Palazzo in Rome, Italy

Palazzo Farnese or Farnese Palace is one of the most important High Renaissance palaces in Rome. Owned by the Italian Republic, it was given to the French government in 1936 for a period of 99 years, and currently serves as the French embassy in Italy.

<i>Thermae</i> Public facilities for bathing in ancient Rome

In ancient Rome, thermae and balneae were facilities for bathing. Thermae usually refers to the large imperial bath complexes, while balneae were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed in great numbers throughout Rome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baths of Caracalla</span> Ancient Roman bath, a landmark of Rome, Italy

The Baths of Caracalla in Rome, Italy, were the city's second largest Roman public baths, or thermae, after the Baths of Diocletian. The baths were likely built between AD 212 and 216/217, during the reigns of emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla. They were in operation until the 530s and then fell into disuse and ruin.

<i>Farnese Hercules</i> Statue of the Roman hero formerly in the Baths of Caracalla, then owned by Paul III

The Farnese Hercules is an ancient statue of Hercules made in the early third century AD and signed by Glykon, who is otherwise unknown; he was an Athenian but he may have worked in Rome. Like many other Ancient Roman sculptures it is a copy or version of a much older Greek original that was well known, in this case a bronze by Lysippos that would have been made in the fourth century BC. This original survived for over 1500 years until it was melted down by Crusaders in 1205 during the Sack of Constantinople. The enlarged copy was made for the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, where the statue was recovered in 1546, and is now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples. The heroically-scaled Hercules is one of the most famous sculptures of antiquity, and has fixed the image of the mythic hero in the European imagination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lysippos</span> 4th-century BC Greek sculptor

Lysippos was a Greek sculptor of the 4th century BC. Together with Scopas and Praxiteles, he is considered one of the three greatest sculptors of the Classical Greek era, bringing transition into the Hellenistic period. Problems confront the study of Lysippos because of the difficulty in identifying his style in the copies which survive. Not only did he have a large workshop and many disciples in his immediate circle, but there is understood to have been a market for replicas of his work, supplied from outside his circle, both in his lifetime and later in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The Victorious Youth or Getty bronze, which resurfaced around 1972, has been associated with him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farnese Atlas</span> Ancient Roman statue of Greek Deity

The Farnese Atlas is a 2nd-century CE Roman marble sculpture of Atlas holding up a celestial globe. Probably a copy of an earlier work of the Hellenistic period, it is the oldest extant statue of Atlas, a Titan of Greek mythology who is represented in earlier Greek vase painting, and the oldest known representation of the celestial sphere and the classical constellations. The sculpture is at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, in Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Archaeological Museum, Naples</span> Museum in Naples

The National Archaeological Museum of Naples is an important Italian archaeological museum, particularly for ancient Roman remains. Its collection includes works from Greek, Roman and Renaissance times, and especially Roman artifacts from the nearby Pompeii, Stabiae and Herculaneum sites. From 1816 to 1861, it was known as Real Museo Borbonico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tepidarium</span> Warm bathroom of the Roman baths

The tepidarium was the warm (tepidus) bathroom of the Roman baths heated by a hypocaust or underfloor heating system. The speciality of a tepidarium is the pleasant feeling of constant radiant heat, which directly affects the human body from the walls and floor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museo di Capodimonte</span> Art museum and historic site in Naples, Italy

Museo di Capodimonte is an art museum located in the Palace of Capodimonte, a grand Bourbon palazzo in Naples, Italy designed by Giovanni Antonio Medrano. The museum is the prime repository of Neapolitan painting and decorative art, with several important works from other Italian schools of painting, and some important ancient Roman sculptures. It is one of the largest museums in Italy. The museum was inaugurated in 1957.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman sculpture</span> Sculpture of ancient Rome

The study of Roman sculpture is complicated by its relation to Greek sculpture. Many examples of even the most famous Greek sculptures, such as the Apollo Belvedere and Barberini Faun, are known only from Roman Imperial or Hellenistic "copies". At one time, this imitation was taken by art historians as indicating a narrowness of the Roman artistic imagination, but, in the late 20th century, Roman art began to be reevaluated on its own terms: some impressions of the nature of Greek sculpture may in fact be based on Roman artistry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museo Nazionale Romano</span> Museum in Rome, Italy

The National Roman Museum is a museum, with several branches in separate buildings throughout the city of Rome, Italy. It shows exhibits from the pre- and early history of Rome, with a focus on archaeological findings from the period of Ancient Rome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crouching Venus</span> Sculpture by Doidalsa

The Crouching Venus is a Hellenistic model of Venus surprised at her bath. Venus crouches with her right knee close to the ground, turns her head to the right and, in most versions, reaches her right arm over to her left shoulder to cover her breasts. To judge by the number of copies that have been excavated on Roman sites in Italy and France, this variant on Venus seems to have been popular.

<i>Antinous Farnese</i> Marble sculptural representation of Antinous

The Antinous Farnese is a marble sculptural representation of Antinous that was sculpted between 130 and 137 CE. Antinous was the lover to Roman Emperor Hadrian; the emperor who, after Antinous's death, perpetuated the image of Antinous as a Roman god within the Roman empire. This sculpture is a part of the Roman Imperial style and was sculpted during a revival of Greek culture, initiated by Hadrian's philhellenism. Its found spot and provenance are unknown, but this sculpture is currently a part of the Farnese Collection in the Naples National Archaeological Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farnese Collection</span> Various Greek and Roman artworks acquired by the future Pope Paul III

The Farnese Collection is one of the first collections of artistic items from Greco-Roman antiquity. It includes some of the most influential classical works, including the sculptures that were part of the Farnese Marbles, their collection of statuary, which includes world-famous works like the Farnese Hercules, Farnese Cup, Farnese Bull and the Farnese Atlas. These statues are now displayed in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples in Italy with some in the British Museum in London.

<i>Venus Callipyge</i> Type of antique Venus

The Venus Callipyge, also known as the Aphrodite Kallipygos or the Callipygian Venus, all literally meaning "Venus of the beautiful buttocks", is an Ancient Roman marble statue, thought to be a copy of an older Greek original. In an example of anasyrma, it depicts a partially draped woman, raising her light peplos to uncover her hips and buttocks, and looking back and down over her shoulder, perhaps to evaluate them. The subject is conventionally identified as Venus (Aphrodite), though it may equally be a portrait of a mortal woman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabriele Tinti (poet)</span> Italian poet and writer (born 1979)

Gabriele Tinti is an Italian poet and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piazza Farnese</span> Square in Rome

Piazza Farnese is the main square of the Regola district of Rome, Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Roman Museum of Palazzo Massimo</span> Museum in Rome, Italy

The Palazzo Massimo alle Terme is the main of the four sites of the Roman National Museum, along with the original site of the Baths of Diocletian, which currently houses the epigraphic and protohistoric section, Palazzo Altemps, home to the Renaissance collections of ancient sculpture, and the Crypta Balbi, home to the early medieval collection.

References

40°51′12″N14°15′02″E / 40.8534°N 14.2505°E / 40.8534; 14.2505