Images: Web Gallery of Art; Musei Vaticani
Clavis number: ECMA 128
Other descriptors: none
Location: Museo Pio Cristiano, Vatican City
Accession number: 31448 (formerly Lateran 119)
Category: sarcophagi
Related literature: Acts of Peter, Martyrdom of Blessed Peter the Apostle, by Pseudo-Linus; Passion of Processus and Martinianus
Featured characters and locations: Jesus Christ, Jonah, Lazarus, Mamertine, Peter (apostle).
1. DESCRIPTION
Material: white marble
Size: 67 × 220 × 19 cm.
Images: Jonah being thrown into and spit out of a large sea-serpents mouth, bordered by maritime and bucolic tableaus. Left: The raising of Lazarus; two fishermen holding a basket of fish; sailors throwing Jonah off a ship and into the jaws of a sea-serpent; Peter striking a rock and baptizing his jailers. Right: Peter being arrested; Jonah being released from the jaws of the sea-serpent; a herdsman and two sheep; a man and a boy fishing.
Date: ca. 290 CE
Provenance: The Jonah Sarcophagus was discovered at the end of the sixteenth century at the worksite of St. Peter’s Basilica and was then brought to the Medici Gardens on the Pincian Hill to be used as a fountain. Later, in the eighteenth century, it was reduced to only its front. The Basilica’s construction began in 1506 CE by Pope Julius II. It was completed in 1615 under Pope Paul V.
2. RELATION TO APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE
The water miracle is found in the Martyrdom of Blessed Peter the Apostle, attributed to Linus, and the Passion of Processus and Martinianus:
But the guards of the prison, Processus and Martinianus, together with the other magistrates and those associated by way of their office, appealed to him, saying, “Lord, go where you wish, because we believe that the emperor has now forgotten about you. But that most wicked Agrippa, enflamed by lust for his concubines and the intemperance of his passion is eager to destroy you. If an order from the king were accusing you, then we would have a command concerning your execution from Paulinus—a very prominent man to whom you were handed over and from whom we received the order to guard you. After we believers in this region of the Mamertine prison were baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity in a spring brought forth from stone by prayers and the glorious sign of the cross, you went around as freely as you pleased. No one bothered you or would be doing so now, if the demonic fire that troubles the city had not taken over Agrippa so violently. For this reason we beg you, minister of our salvation, to do us this favor in return. Because you freed us from the chains of sin and demons, now depart free from prison and being fettered with chains—a cruelty that we are charged to enforce—not just with our permission but our request, for the salvation of so great a multitude.” (Lin. Mart. Pet. 5; trans. David L. Eastman, The Ancient Martyrdom Accounts of Peter and Paul [WGRW 39; Atlanta: SBL Press, 2015])
The arrest of Peter is reported in the various accounts of Peter’s martyrdom, the earliest being found in the Acts of Peter.
While Peter was saying these things and all the brothers and sisters were weeping, four soldiers arrested and took him to Agrippa. Agrippa, on account of his illness, ordered him to be crucified. (Acts of Peter 36:7; trans. Eastman)
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Beck, Herbert, and Peter Bol, eds. Spätantike und frühes Christentum: Ausstellung im Liebieghaus, Museum alter Plastik, Frankfurt am Main: 16. Dezember 1983 bis 11. März 1984. Frankfurt am Main: Liebieghaus Museum alter Plastik, 1983 (pp. 611–12; cat. 203).
Bosio, Antonio. Roma sotterranea. Rome: Appresso Guglielmo Facciotti, 1632 (p. 103).
Bottari, Giovanni G. Sculture e pitture . . . della Roma sotterranea. 3 vols. Rome: Stamperia Vaticana, 1737–1754 (vol. 1, p. 186).
Bovini, Giuseppe, and Hugo Brandenburg. Repertorium der christliche Sarkophage I: Rum und Ostia. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1967 (vol. 1, no. 35).
Cartlidge, David R., and J. Keith Elliott. Art and the Christian Apocrypha. London and New York: Routledge, 2001 (pp. 169–70).
Couzin, Robert. “Death in a New Key: The Christian Turn of Roman Sarcophagi.” PhD diss. University of Toronto, 2013 (pp. 164–291).
Dresken-Weiland, Jutta. “The Role of Peter in Early Christian Art: Images from the 4th to the 6th Century.” Pages 115–34 in The Early Reception an Appropriation of the Apostle Peter (60–800 CE): The Anchors of the Fisherman. Edited by Roald Dijkstra. Euhormos 1. Leiden: Brill, 2020 (pp. 116–20).
Engemann, Josef. Untersuchungen zur Sepulkralsymbolik der späteren römischen Kaiserzeit. Münster: Aschendorff, 1973 (pp. 72–73, 75, 86).
Flicker, Johannes. Die altchristlichen Bildwerke im christlichen Museum des Lateran. Leipzig: Seemann, 1890 (pp. 61–62).
Gerke, Friedrich. Der Sarkophag des Iunius Bassus. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1936 (pp. 38–46, 339).
Huskinson, Janet M. Concordia Apostolorum: Christian Propaganda at Rome in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries: A Study in Early Christian Iconography and Iconology. Oxford: B. A. R., 1982 (p. 13–14).
Löx, Markus. “The Death of Peter: Anchoring an Image in the Context of Late antique Representations of Martyrdom.” Pages 135–71 in The Early Reception and Appropriation of the Apostle Peter (60–800 CE): The Anchors of the Fisherman. Edited by Roald Dijkstra. Euhormos 1. Leiden: Brill, 2020 (esp. 155–63).
Moorsel, Paul van. “Il miracolo della roccia nella letteratura e nell’arte paleocristiane.” Rivista di archeologia cristiana 40 (1964): 221–51.
Paolucci, Antonio, ed. Petros eni — Pietro è qui: catalogo della mostra, Città del Vaticano, Braccio di Carlo Magno, 11 ottobre 2006 – 8 marzo 2007. Rome: Edindustria, 2006 (pp. 168–69; cat. III.23).
Snyder, Graydon F. Ante Pacem: Archaeological Evidence of Church Life Before Constantine. Macon: Mercer University Press, 2003 (p. 37).
Weitzmann, Kurt, ed. Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1979 (pp. 405–406).
4. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
“Sarcophagus ‘of Jonah’.” Musei Vaticani.
“The Jonah Sarcophagus.” Christian Iconography.
Entry created by Shawn Schechter, under the supervision of Tony Burke, York University, 1 April 2021.