The Farnese Bull is a colossal marble group, and it is the largest single sculpture recovered from antiquity. Pliny the Elder credits the presumed original to the Rhodian artists Apollonius of Tralles and his brother Tauriscus. The surviving work may be a Roman version from AD 222 to 235, though scholars dispute this.
It shows the death of Dirce, whom Amphion and Zethus tie to a wild bull. The group is more than 13 feet (4 meters) high and weighs 24 short tons (21.8 metric tons). Excavators found it in 1546 at the Baths of Caracalla, on the orders of Pope Paul III.
It was heavily restored in the 16th century, and the child, dog and animals around the base may not be original. Michelangelo planned to use it in a fountain. It has been in the Naples museum since 1826, and is sometimes shown at the Museo di Capodimonte.
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