Sarcophagus with Bacchanalian scenes

The museum's finest monument of Roman memorial sculpture is the sarcophagus showing Bacchic scenes (c. 210); the image of Dionysus-Bacchus was associated in the ancient mind with the theme of death. On one side the naked Dionysus (Bacchus) accompanied by his suite of bacchantes, maenads,seleni and satyrs, is approaching the sleeping Ariadne. The face of Bacchus's wife and companion is not finished: it was to bear the features of the deceased Roman woman for whom the sarcophagus was intended. The other side is dominated by the high-relief figure of Bacchus in official robes, a chiton with a rich girdle, holding the thyrsus staff and a kantharos vessel in his hands. Next to him is Heracles who has collapsed onto a couch having tasted of the divine potion and is unable to resist the power of Dionysus. The figures are shown in complex poses and swift movement., but nowhere does the procession disturb the harmony of the sarcophagus.
The tiles in the architectural ceramic frieze with scenes of the grape harvest and wine making, the fragments of wall paintings and mosaics, the glass vessels, beads and other articles give one an idea of the decorative and applied art of the Romans.