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,

being iconic as the revival of the Hellenistic traditions of the local Roman style. As noted on the sarcophagus itself, it is made with the symmetrical architectural frame in mind, allowing the 12 scenes on the frieze sarcophagi to create communication between one another. At the point of time, Christianity’s popularity was not with the affluent. If Junius Bassus had declared that he followed Christianity, it would have dealt a huge blow to his family, status and personal image as most of the affluent still followed the pagan practices. Hence, he was only baptized as a Christian on his deathbed, prior to his death.
Inspired by the Greeks, the Romans preferred to focus on the relief sculptures, carvings and statuary to promote realism, to be executed in a narrative manner, more onto on their paintings and their sarcophagi for propaganda.
It was known that from around the Hadrianic period, that Greek mythological scenes of funerary significance were the first to be used as the frieze on the Roman sarcophagi. The depiction of Greek myths on the Roman funerary art seem to have started early in the Hadrianic period. From there, scenes of the Greek mythology are given more concern on their placement on the sarcophagi itself, hence a coherent mythological narrative was created, as noted on the sarcophagus with the myth of Theseus and Ariadne. From therein, Greek mythological scenes were in favour for the sarcophagi within the affluent.

Figure 2. Sarcophagus with Theseus and Ariadne
Dogma started when Gaius Octavius took control over the entire Roman Empire, unifying under him as Augustus, which was also known as the “Revered One”. It was also around the reign of Augustus, that Christianity was born, with its stories propagating everywhere else. After Augustus’ death, the most significant event was the Great Jewish War within the grounds of the Roman Empire. This had brought on negative implications on Christianity itself, and the Roman Empire’s rulers took steps to destroy Christianity.
In the Bible, it was decreed that graven images of the God is not to be made, for it was to prevent the worship of idols that are not God himself. Hence, images were created to perpetuate the stories to the future worshippers of Christianity; Images do allow the dissemination of the knowledge, just by seeing and observing the subject matter at hand.
Around 200 CE of the Early Christian, the art was mainly limited to the fresco paintings in the Catacombs, before the Edict of Milan arrived to legalize Christianity.

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

friezes.
In conclusion, the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus was a product on how the narrative of Christian religion were adapted into the friezes of the traditional sarcophagi that was traditionally occupied by the Greek mythological narrative, before replacing the individual scenes of Greek mythology preferred by the Romans as it started.

References:
Edwards, Catharine, and Greg Woolf. Rome the Cosmopolis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Dowden, Ken, and Niall Livingstone. A Companion to Greek Mythology. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
Malbon, Elizabeth Struthers. The Iconography of the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990.
Novak, Ralph Martin. Christianity and the Roman Empire: Background Texts. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2001.
"Roman Art (c.500 BCE - 500 CE) Origins, History, Types, Characteristics." Roman Art: Origins, History, Types, Characteristics. Accessed September 24, 2016. http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/roman-art.htm.