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~Wolf-Head Barge Fixture. Date: A.D. 1-200 Place of origin: Italy, Rome
From the source: This snarling wolf head is closely similar to others that were attached to a luxurious pleasure barge moored on a lake near Rome. The ship was designed as a floating platform for elaborate, hedonistic parties.
Hercules detail, The Farnese Collection, National Archaeological Museum, Naples
Photographer: Luigi Spina
The Farnese Hercules is an ancient sculpture, probably an enlarged copy made in the early third century AD and signed by a certain Glykon, from an original by Lysippos (or one of his circle) that would have been made in the fourth century BC. The copy was made for the Baths of Caracalla in Rome (dedicated in 216 AD), where it was recovered in 1546.
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. It quickly made its way into the collection of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, grandson of Pope Paul III. Alessandro Farnese was well placed to form one of the greatest collections of classical sculpture that has been assembled since Antiquity.
It stood for generations in its own room at Palazzo Farnese, Rome, where the hero was surrounded by frescoed depictions of his feats by Annibale Carracci and his studio, executed in the 1590s.
The Farnese statue was moved to Naples in 1787 and is now displayed in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale. wiki
A fragment from a colossal bronze statue of Constantine. It was once gilded; a small trace remains on the back side. The hand alone is five feet tall.
