Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften

Abstract:
A painted arcosolium in the Roman Catacomb of Generosa, in the Magliana district, was interested by an accurate restoration project, necessary because of a critical water infiltration. The restoration revealed a clear figurative program – already known to Giovanni Battista de Rossi and to Enrico Josi – that shows the stylistic data and the pictorial material typical of the repertoire of the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth century. The scenes of Abraham’s sacrifice depicted on the front and the female praying figure in the lunette are today lost, and the restoration had returned to light the decorations of both sides, that show respectively a shepherd with the syrinx, labelled as Pastor, and an elaborate bucolic scene. The color range, the iconographical project and the characteristic of the style allow us to reflect on the “colored” art of Theodosian-Valentinian era, considered together with the contemporary production of sarcophagi of high patronage and looking to West and East, to Rome and Constantinople.