The Adonis’ sarcophagus in the Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya

Abstract

This article studies a small sarcophagus decorated with scenes of the mite of Adonis and located today in the Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya. The resemblance between this compositional and an important Roman sarcophagus belonging to the Vatican collections, aroused doubts about ancient origins of the first one. With a comprehensive compositional stylistic and iconographic analysis, it is demonstrated that this sarcophagus is really a modern copy of the Roman exemplary.