The accompanying bas relief, from the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, (A. D. 359,) is probably intended for Christ “sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions.”[544] He is here shown seated on a curule chair, wearing a Roman toga, and holding a half open scroll in his hand. His feet rest on a scarf held by an allegorical figure, probably a personification of the earth—a conception borrowed from Pagan art.
Frescoes of the baptism of Our Lord occasionally occur;[545] but the scenes of the temptation, the subject of
such grotesque treatment in mediæval art, nowhere appear in the Catacombs.
On a sarcophagus in the Lateran Museum is an illustration of Our Lord’s first miracle at Cana of Galilee, in which he is touching the water-pots with his rod of power and turning the water into wine.
Fig. 92.—Christ and the Woman of Samaria.
Christ talking with the woman of Samaria at the well of Sychar is a subject that is frequently repeated in fresco and relief. In the accompanying example from a sarcophagus in the Lateran, a windlass of primitive construction, like those still common in the Campagna, is shown.
