Farnese, << fahr NAY say, >> Bull is a famous ancient group sculpture that portrays an episode in Greek mythology. Its name comes from the Farnese Palace in Rome, where the sculpture was once kept. The Farnese Bull is a striking marble copy of a lost sculpture made in the 100’s B.C. by the Greek sculptors Apollonios and Tauriskos of Tralles. Unknown Roman sculptors made the copy in the A.D. 200’s, adding their own elements to the original plan of the sculpture. The copy was discovered during an excavation in Rome in the 1500’s, and lost portions of it were restored by Renaissance artists.
The sculpture shows two young men tying Dirce, the wife of King Lycus of Thebes, to a bull. Dirce had cruelly mistreated and imprisoned Antiope, who was Lycus’ niece and, according to some stories, had been his first wife. Dirce planned to kill Antiope by binding her to a bull’s horns. But Antiope’s twin sons tied Dirce to the bull instead.
