Vatican Museums

This large marble chest, almost intact, has two strigilated panels alternated with three figurative fields. In the centre there is a portrait of the deceased, with her arms (restored) raised in a gesture of prayer; she wears a tunic covered with a cloak, which also covers her face like a veil. In the background there is drapery (parapétasma), which serves to isolate and confer solemnity to the scene, while at the woman's feet there is a peacock, alluding to the eternity that awaits the faithful after death, on the basis of the belief that the flesh of this animal was incorruptible. The woman's face is merely sketched, intended to be completed with a portrait that was never executed. In the left panel there is Peter, who with the virga makes a spring flow from the rock in order to baptise his converted gaolers, according to the apocryphal tale. Finally, on the right there is a youthful likeness of Christ, transforming water into wine at the wedding at Cana, according to the Gospel of John.