SARCOPHAGUS OF JUNIUS BASSUS
Carved for a Roman city prefect who was a newly baptized Christian at his death,
the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus is not only a magnificent example of “the fine style” of
mid-fourth-century sculpture but also a treasury of early Christian iconography clearly
indicating the Christianization of Rome — and the Romanization of Christianity. Whereas
most previous scholarship has focused on the style of the sarcophagus, Elizabeth Struthers
Malbon explores the perplexing elements of its iconography in their fourth-century context.
In so doing she reveals the distinction between “pagan” and Christian images to be less rigid
than
sometimes
thought.
Against the background of earlier and contemporary art and religious literature,
Malbon explicates the relationship of the facade’s two levels of scenes depicting stories from
the Old and New Testaments, the connection between the scenes on the facade with those
on the lid and ends of the sarcophagus, and the integration of pagan elements within a
Christian work. What emerges is a carefully constructed iconographic program shedding light
on the development of early Christian art within late antique culture.
A large, white marble sarcophagus, decorated with figurative reliefs on three sides. The
front of the sarcophagus is organized into a “double-register,” with reliefs on two levels. The top
level of reliefs are situated underneath an entablature, and divided by carved Corinthian columns
to create five niches. Beneath these are a further five niches, divided again by columns, but set
within an arch and gable register. The ten niches contain scenes of biblical characters and stories;
on the top level, from left to right, the scenes depict the sacrifice of Isaac, the arrest of Peter,
Christ enthroned, with disciples to each side, the arrest of Christ, and the judgement of Pilate. On
the lower level, the scenes are (from left to right): Job’s distress, Adam and Eve, Christ arriving in
Jerusalem, Daniel in the lion’s den and the arrest of Paul. Within the spandrels of the lower
register – now badly damaged – scenes from both the Old and New Testaments are depicted,
with lambs acting symbolically in the place of men, which are believed to represent the three
youths in the fiery furnace, the striking of the rock, the multiplication of the loaves, the baptism of
Christ by John, the receiving of the Law, and the raising of Lazarus (Malbon, The Iconography of
the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, p. 5). The short ends of the sarcophagus are decorated with
traditional pagan scenes representing the Four Seasons, with putti or Cupids harvesting. The lid
survives only in very fragmentary form; the main dedicatory inscription was inscribed along the
front edge of the lid, with a tabula placed on top and in the center originally containing a funerary
epigram, describing Bassus’s career and funeral, but which is again much damaged. Fragments
of carved reliefs survive on either side of this inscription, with the right side potentially identified
as a funerary banquet, or kline meal for the dead. The remains of a mask representing Luna, the
moon, at the right-hand end of the lid is presumed to have complemented one of Sol, the sun, at
the far-left end (Malbon, The Iconography of the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, p. 5).