Vatican Museums

The importance of this sarcophagus (c. 300) is enhanced by the exceptional preservation of its extensive polychrome elements and gilding. It was found on the Via Prenestina, buried with another exemplar decorated with themes related to Bacchus (1818). On the lid, at the sides of the central anepigraphic tabula, there is a hunting scene and an unfinished portrait bust of the deceased. The case, formed of two separate blocks united in ancient times, is decorated with scenes of bucolic inspiration, alluding to the Hereafter as a form of detachment from the worries of life, in the context of a pleasant rural setting in accordance with the aristocratic ideal of the time. At the sides of the front there are two figures of larger proportions - a "kriophoros" shepherd (holding a ram) and a woman with her hands raised in prayer, which have led the tomb to be attributed to a Christian patron, whose identity however remains doubtful due also to the context of its discovery.