Sarcophagus Of Junius Bassus, Rome, Italy, Ca. 359

The Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, Rome, Italy, ca. 359 is a sculpture from the Early Christian period. How does this work combine Christian and Roman style and subject matter?

VENNESSA LIN JINGYI

Question 4

“Such specialization and depersonalization of enquiry led inevitably to a taste for mere erudition and a temptation to eclecticism,” said Arnold Hauser.

The Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus is a marble sculpture created for the burial of Junius Bassus, which had occurred in ca. 359, during the Early Christian period. This sculpture is iconic for its time, for it has both the styles of the Christian and the Roman. Figure 1. The Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus

The sarcophagus of Junius Bassus was dated around mid-fourth century,

Hiding and concealing the forms of Christianity took them underground, into the Catacombs. The art then, was not understood by the common man, as it was still considered as a secret society, before it evolved to the widely understood Christian paintings, to the early Christian sculptures that was influenced by the Roman and Greek art. I could see from here, that the sarcophagi’s frieze design was now taken over by the scenes of Christianity. Within all, with the promotion from the wealthy Romans, marble tombs and sarcophagi with Christian imagery became popular for their burials, with many sarcophagi having references to the Christian imagery, as such with the subject matter, of the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus of Rome.

Often, it would be the affluent, that influenced the direction of the art that took them to it. By the time it came to 313 c.a., was when the Edict of Milan raised, Roman art has taken a direction into using the Christianity as the motif. As the current emperor, Western Emperor Constantine 1 had converted to Christianity, the image of the emperor was taken as the emperor of the heavens on the