Vatican Museums

Discovered shortly before 1650 in the ancient cemetery of the Appian Way at the Basilica of St. Sebastian, this beautiful marble sarcophagus is adorned with scenes from the Bible, in which the characters are crowded together and episodes recounted seamlessly. At the front it is possible to observe Adam and Eve, the miracle at Cana, the healing of the blind man, Ezekiel and the bones that come to life, the prediction of Peter's denial and the sacrifice of Isaac, along with two apocryphal scenes: Peter's arrest and the baptism of his gaolers. The sides are graced with the three young Hebrews thrown into the furnace by King Nabucodonosor, Noah in his ark and the prophet Daniel in the lion's den. Owned by the Marquise Angelelli in the seventeenth century, the sarcophagus was broken up into slabs and reintegrated by the sculptor Giuseppe Angelini in 1764, the year of its acquisition by the Christian Museum; it was then recomposed and restored after its entry into the Pius-Christian Museum in 1854.