Sarcophagus front with the Traditio Legis

Photogallery

Sarcophagus front with the Traditio Legis
Sarcophagus front with the Traditio Legis
“Column” sarcophagi

The front, the only surviving portion of a marble sarcophagus assembled from three independent elements, was restored in the eighteenth century by Bartolomeo Cavaceppi. The exact place of its discovery is unknown; the same restorer sold it in 1756 to Francesco Vettori for the new Christian Museum of Benedict XIV (1740-1758). The elegant colonnade, with ionic bases and composite capitals which divides the figurative space, bears in the central niche an image of the “Consignment of the Law” (Traditio Legis), by a bearded Christ standing on the paradisiacal mount, to the apostle Peter, in the presence of a joyful Paul. The two spaces between the columns on the right are occupied with scenes of the presentation of Christ, here beardless, to Pilate in the act of washing his hands; the two intercolumniations on the left are decorated with episodes from the Petrine cycle, with the scene of the washing of the feet and Peter conducted to martyrdom.