Images: Musei Vaticani; Kornbluth Photography
Clavis number: ECMA 146
Other descriptors: Sarcophagus with reliefs of the type of the Passion sarcophagi; Sarcophagus with trees of the Anastasis type
Location: Museo Pio Cristiano, Vatican City
Accession number: Cat. 28591 (formerly Lateran 164)
Category: Sarcophagi
Related literature: Acts of Paul, Acts of Peter
Featured characters and locations: Abel, Cain, Job, Paul (apostle), Peter (apostle).
1. DESCRIPTION
Material: white marble
Size: 67 × 207 × 77 cm. (lid missing)
Images: The five scenes on the sarcophagus are bordered by the branches of six olive trees. The middle image has a chi-ro cross with two birds perching above two soldiers resting below. To the left of center is the arrest of Peter by two soldiers. To the right is the arrest of Paul with a soldier preparing to unsheathe his sword; reedy plants in the background suggest that the location is the Tiber. On the far left is a scene of Cain and Able presenting their gifts to God, and the the far right features Job, his wife, and a friend.
Date: ca. 340–350 CE
Provenance: originally from the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls (San Paolo fuori le mura), built by the Emperor Constantine over the tomb of the Apostle along the Via Ostiense. Displayed in the museum since 1854.
2. RELATION TO APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE
The arrest of Paul is reported in the various accounts of Paul’s martyrdom, the earliest being found in the Acts of Paul.
Caesar locked them in prison and tortured them—the ones whom he used to love very much. He also sent word that the soldiers of the great king should be sought out, and he issued an edict to the effect that all those found to be Christians should be killed. Among the many, Paul was also brought in chains. All his fellow prisoners paid attention to him and to what Paul answered, so Caesar understood that he was the leader of the armies. (Acts of Paul 14:2–3; 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 38:7; trans. Eastman).
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bovini, Giuseppe, and Hugo Brandenburg. Repertorium der christliche Sarkophage I: Rum und Ostia. 2 vols. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1967 (vol. 1, no. 61).
Brandenberg, Hugo. “Stilprobleme der frühchristlichen Sarkophagkunst Roms im 4. Jahrhundert.” Römische Mitteilungen 86 (1979): 439–71 (p. 465, pls. 150–51).
Cartlidge, David R., and J. Keith Elliott. Art and the Christian Apocrypha. London and New York: Routledge, 2001 (p. 144–46).
Daltrop, Georg. “Sarcophagus, with reliefs of the type of the Passion sarcophagi.” Page 220 in The Vatican Collections: The Papacy and Art. Edited by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1982 (p. 220).
Dijkstra, Roald. “Apocryphal Legends about the Apostles in Early Christian Art and Poetry: A Survey.” Pages 85–112 in The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles in Latin Christianity. Proceedings of the First International Summer School on Christian Apocryphal Literature (ISCAL), Strasbourg, 24–27 June 2012. Edited by Els Rose. Turnhout: Brepols, 2014. (p. 107).
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).
———. “Christian Sarcophagi from Rome.” Pages 39–55 in The Routledge Handbook of Christian Art. Edited by Robin M. Jensen and Mark D. Ellison. New York: Routledge, 2018.
Flicker, Johannes. Die altchristlichen Bildwerke im christlichen Museum des Lateran. Leipzig: Seemann, 1890 (pp. 109–10, no. 164).
Hermann Jr., J. J. “Late Roman Sarcophagi in Central Italy Made from Scavenged Blocks.” Pages 93–103 in Interdisciplinary Studies on Ancient Stone: Proceedings of the IX ASMOSIA Conferrence. Edited by A. Guttiérrez Garcia-M., P. Lapuente Mercadal and I. Roda de Llanza. Tarragona: Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica, 2012.
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. 20–21).
Malbon, Elizabeth Struthers. The Iconography of the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus: Neofitus Iit Ad Deum. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990 (fig. 9).
Saggiorato, A. I sarcofagi paleocristiani con scene di passione. Studi di antichità cristiana. Bologna: Casa Patron, 1968 (no. 22, fig. 23).
Utro, Umberto, ed. San Paolo in Vaticano: La figura e la parola dell’Apostolo delle Genti nelle raccolte pontificie. Todi: Tau Editrice, 2009 (pp. 122–24).
Wilpert, Joseph. I sarcofagi cristiani antichi. 3 vols. Rome: Pontificio Istit. di Archeologia Cristiana, 1929–1936 (vol. 1, pp. 125, 164, pls. 142–43).
4. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Entry created by Rikesh Abhani, under the supervision of Tony Burke, York University, 31 March 2021.