Vatican Museums

This sarcophagus (c. 325-350) was found in 1841, along with other artefacts, in the area near the Vatican City railway station. The front is divided by colonnaded architecture, populated with cupids busy harvesting. On the front, between the columns, various biblical scenes are represented: the sacrifice of Isaac, Moses receiving the Law, the healing of the blind man, the prediction of the denial of Peter, the bleeding woman, the multiplication of the loaves, and Peter baptising the gaolers (from an apocryphal account). On the two sides, there are scenes depicting original sin and the three young Jews in the furnace. The same episode is depicted on the raised part of the lid along with a concise representation of story of the prophet Jonah. From the inscription we learn that the sarcophagus was prepared by Crescentianus for his late wife Agape, and that he himself was later buried there, after living to an age of one hundred and one years!