The Farnese Atlantic, National Archaeological Museum of Naples. 

The Farnese Atlantic, National Archaeological Museum of Naples.

The Farnese Atlantis is a 1.85 m high marble sculpture dating back to the 2nd century AD. The statue belongs to the group of sculptures from the Farnese collection found in the Terme di Caracalla in Rome in 1546 and then moved to Naples as inherited, in 1787, by Charles III of Bourbon. The sculpture depicts the Titan Atlantis supporting the globe on its shoulders, on which 43 constellations are represented.

The peculiarity of the work, Roman copy from the 2nd century AD of a Hellenistic prototype, is determined by its uniqueness. The Farnese globe is in fact the most complete representation of the celestial sphere, just as it was conceived by the Greek-Hellenistic culture. An iconography passed down through the centuries until the Renaissance through the work of Tolomeo.