Museo Archeologico Nazionale Napoli
The Museo Archeologico Nazionale Napoli (National Archaeological Museum) is located in Naples, Italy. It contains a large collection of Roman artifacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum. The collection includes works of the highest quality produced in Greek, Roman and Renaissance times. Some of the pieces were collected by Cosimo de' Medici and Lorenzo il Magnifico in the 15th century.
Among the notable works found in the museum:
- The Farnese Hercules, who fixed the image of Hercules in the European imagination.
- The Farnese Atlas is the oldest extant depiction of Atlas from Greek mythology, and the oldest view of the Western constellations, possibly based upon the star catalog of Hipparchus
- The Farnese Bull is another of the famous Farnese Marbles. It is widely consisidered the largest single sculpture ever recovered from antiquity.
- The Farnese Cup is the most famous piece in the "Treasure of the Magnificent" ; it is a bowl made of sardonyx agate.
- The Secret Cabinet, a separately housed collection of Erotic Roman art.
- The Placentarius, the small bronze statue represents a distinctly ithyphallic old nude man who, on the palm of his hand, holds a little silver tray.
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