Marble Fragment of a Sarcophagus in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2007

Marble Fragment of a Sarcophagus with Putti in a Grapevine
Roman or Byzantine
Carved 200-400 AD

Accession # 24.97.12

Vines that supported grape-plucking putti, or figures of children, and baskets full of the fruit on Late Roman sarcophagi often refer to Dionysos, god of wine, and his promise of a blessed afterlife. Christians adopted the motif to represent a biblical passage (John 15:5), "I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit," and as a reference to the wine of the Eucharist service.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.