#gaius asinius pollio

THE FARNESE BULL

Pliny the Elder mentions a sculpture in the collection Asinius Pollio depicting the Supplice of Dirce:

Asinius Pollio, a man of a warm and ardent temperament, was determined that the buildings which he erected as memorials of himself should be made as attractive as possible; for here we see … Zethus and Amphion, with Dirce, the Bull, and the halter, all sculptured from a single block of marble, the work of Apollonius and Tauriscus, and brought to Rome from Rhodes. (Historia Naturalis 36.4)

This outsized Hellenistic sculpture, carved from a single block of marble, was displayed near the Forum in the Atrium Libertatis. In 39 BC, Pollio had funded the rebuilding of this structure, which housed the censor’s archive and the brass tablets of the ager publicus. Also included were an art gallery and Greek and Latin libraries, which Pollio founded in 39 BC. This lavish complex was demolished during the construction of the Forum of Trajan.

In 1546, excavators hired by Paul III working in the palestra of the Baths of Caracalla discovered numerous “beautiful fragments of statues and animals were found that were all in one piece in antiquity,” as a contemporary phrased it. These fragments were immediately identified as the Hellenistic group described by Pliny. This identification was supported by the fact that the baths had been built on the site of the Horti Asiniani, the gardens of Pollio’s estate, to where the sculpture might have been relocated after the closing of the Atrium Libertatis. The sculpture was reconstructed and restored by Michelangelo and installed in the Palazzo Farnese.

It is now, however, thought that the Farnese Bull is a late 2nd-century copy of Pollio’s sculpture. If that is the case, the original was either already lost or at some other location. The decision to place this work in a bathing complex contrasts sharply with the context of Pollio’s version. Situated in the Atrium Libertatis, the sculpture was prized by its owner and his cultured peers for its Greek pedigree, technical virtuosity and mythological drama. The Severans, however, may have chosen it for its size. Rising 4 m from the floor on a 3.3” x 3.3” m base, the Farnese Bull (unlike the other sculptures decorating the main bathing block) held its own amidst the gargantuan architecture. Besides the work’s scale, its violent subject matter and turbulent composition might have appealed to Caracalla’s brutish tastes and personality.