Sarcophagus with Scenes from the Passion of Christ

This Late Antique sarcophagus condenses Christ’s final days into a didactic band: the Arrest, Peter’s denial, Pilate washing his hands, Carrying the Cross, Crucifixion, and Entombment. Figures are economical—broad planes, drilled folds, column screens—so that each episode reads instantly. The cycle is less reportage than proclamation: suffering leads to burial, and burial points to the promised rising that lies beyond the stone.