Sarcophagus Frontal with a Vintage Scene

Rome, 290-300
Marble
Getty Villa, Pacific Palisades, California

Eight putti gather grapes while three others dance on them in a large vat which is itself shaped and adorned like a sarcophagus, a late classical evocation of death and rebirth. Christians of the following century adapted the symbolism of vines and vintage to baptismal and funereal contexts.

Read more about funereal art in classical and paleo-Christian culture.

Photographed at the Getty Villa by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.