Christian Sarcophagi
11.09.2025 H09:00-19:00
12.09.2025 H09:00-14:00
11.09.2025 H09:00-19:00
12.09.2025 H09:00-14:00
Christian Sarcophagi: Iconography, Textual Sources, and Models
Register here to attend on 11.09.2025
Register here to attend on 12.09.2025
Conference organized by University of Bern and University Johann Gutenberg with the support of FNS.
The event will be held in English and Italian.
Early Christian sarcophagi preserve some of the earliest depictions of Christian art and impressively document the transformation processes from pagan to Christian imagery, as well as the emergence and development of new pictorial themes for a new circle of recipients. They thus reflect the exciting relationship with the society that produced and used them, as well as its concepts of the afterlife and hopes.
Despite their enormous potential, the last major symposium on early Christian sarcophagi was held a quarter of a century ago (1999). The basis for the new discussions on this topic is the series of the Repertory of Christian-antique Sarcophagi, completed in 2018, which now enables us to compare and discuss the objects in typological, stylistic, iconographic and cultural-historical terms. The good documentation of the material is counteracted by the fact that a large number of questions about early Christian sarcophagi remain unanswered.
This conference aims to help fill this research gap by devoting itself in detail to a special field within sarcophagus research. The enormous wealth of pictorial subjects on early Christian sarcophagi invites intensive study and possibly a new evaluation of the material. Thus, the conference will be dedicated to the iconography on early Christian and early Byzantine sarcophagi from various parts of the Roman Empire, whereby questions of style, provenance, dating and cultural-historical contextualization will also play an important role. Particular attention will also be paid to the relationship of the depictions to the textual sources and pictorial models. In addition, the outdated research consensus on early Christian sarcophagi will be questioned and updated.
PROGRAMME:
Thursday, 11 September
H09:00 Institutional Greetings & Introduction, Manuela Studer-Karlen & Vasiliki Tsamakda
Session I: From Pagan to Christian Iconography
Chair: Vasiliki Tsamakda
H09:10-09:50 Alessandro Vella (Musei Vaticani), I sarcophagi nel IV secolo, tra Pagani e Cristiani
H09:50-10:30 Jaś Elsner (Corpus Christi College Oxford), Inventing Christian Visuality in the Realm of the Dead: Sarcophagus, Catacomb and Inscription in the Roman Tombscape
H10:30-11:10 Edmund Thomas (Durham University), Architecture and Biblical Narrative: the Early Christian Adoption of the Column Sarcophagus
Coffee Break
Session II: Further Developments in Christian Iconography
Chair: Jaś Elsner
H11:40-12:20 Barbara Mazzei (Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia Sacra), L‘Interscambio tra le Arti. Lo sviluppo del Repertorio Iconografico Paleocristiano
H12:20-13:00 Laura Lerchner (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz), Überlegungen zur Gruppe der sog. Passionssarkophage: Forschungsgeschichte und Ikonographie
H13:00-13:40 Philipp Niewöhner (Georg August-Universität Göttingen), The Sarcophagi of New Rome. What Compares, What Does Not, and Why
Lunch Break
Session III: New Discoveries – New Interpretations
Chair: Manuela Studer-Karlen
H15:20-16:00 Umberto Utro (Musei Vaticani), I Sarcofagi del Museo Pio Cristiano: Recenti Acquisizioni Iconografiche
H16:00-16:40 Gaia Mariotti (Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana), In una Scena di Miracolo. La possibile Rappresentazione del Defunto su un Sarcofago a Fregio Continuo del Museo Pio Cristiano in Vaticano
H16:40-17:20 Cecilia Proverbio (Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana), The Punishment of the Elders in the Story of Susanna: A New Sample from San Sebastiano fuori le mura in Rome
Coffee Break
H18:00 Evening Lecture: Jutta Dresken-Weiland (Georg August-Universität Göttingen), Die Sammlung frühchristlicher Sarkophage am Campo Santo Teutonico und der Stand der Sarkophagforschung
Friday, 12 September
Session IV: Iconographic Case Studies I
Chair: Philipp Niewöhner
H09:00-09:40 Robin Jensen (University of Notre Dame), The Diminutive Recipients of Jesus‘s Healing Miracles: Does Size Convey Meaning?
H09:40-10:20 Manuela Studer-Karlen (Universität Bern), Resurrection of the Dead on Early Christian Sarcophagi
H10:20-11:00 Galit Noga-Banai (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Reflections on the Representation of the Ascension on Roman Sarcophagi
Coffee Break
Session V: Iconographic Case Studies II
Chair: Jutta Dresken-Weiland
H11:30-12:10 Mark D. Ellison (Brigham Young University), The Allocation of Labors to Adam and Eve on Christian Sarcophagi: Patrons, Viewers, and New Perspectives
H12:10-12:50 Vasiliki Tsamakda (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz), Der Sündenfall in der Sarkophagplastik
H12:50-13:30 Athanasios Semoglou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), Saint Thecla on the Decoration of the Early Christian Sarcophagi
H13:30-14:00: Conclusion
Jutta Dresken-Weiland obtained her PhD in 1990 in Bonn. From 1990 to 1996, she worked at the German Archaeological Institute in Rome and received the Institute’s travel scholarship in 1991/1992. She completed her habilitation in Göttingen in 2002 and, since 2009, has served as an adjunct professor of Christian Archaeology and Byzantine Art History at the same university. Since 2002, she has been a member of the editorial board of the journal Antiquité tardive (Paris). In 2022, she was appointed Honorary Fellow at the DFG Centre for Advanced Studies Beyond Canon. Heterotopias of Religious Authority in Ancient Christianity. Her many publications focus on early Christian art in its various forms, with special attention to iconography and epigraphy.
Manuela Studer-Karlen is a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) professor at the University of Bern. Her research has been supported, among others, by fellowships from Dumbarton Oaks (Washington, D.C.), the SNSF, and the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation. Her first book, published in 2012, focused on depictions of the deceased on early Christian sarcophagi. For her habilitation thesis on Christus Anapeson, published in 2022, she received the Franz Joseph II Liechtenstein Prize (University of Fribourg) in 2017. Her main research areas include the history of visual-cultural processes in Late Antiquity, the interaction between text, image and space in Byzantine churches, and medieval Georgian art. On 1 October 2025, she will take up the post of Professor of Byzantine Art at the University of Vienna.
Vasiliki Tsamakda is Professor of Christian Archaeology and Byzantine Art History at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. She completed her PhD in 2001 at the University of Heidelberg with a dissertation on the illustrated Chronicle of John Skylitzes from the 12th century, held in Madrid. Her habilitation, published in 2012 by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, focused on two Cretan painting workshops of the 14th century. Her research interests include, in addition to Byzantine manuscript illumination and monumental art, catacomb painting and Byzantine epigraphy. Vasiliki Tsamakda is a member of several international academic committees, and her research has been funded by institutions such as the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Leibniz Association.
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Courtesy Musée Départemental Arles Antique