Sarcophagus Fragment with Apostles, Stars, and Crowns
Late 4th century
Fragment of a stone sarcophagus
Museo Pio Vaticano, Rome
This type of sarcophagus had two groups of six apostles on either side of a symbolic representation of the Resurrection: a chi-rho in a wreath surmounting a cross with two sleeping/standing soldiers on either side. Another sarcophagus fragment in the museum shows the apostles bringing wreaths to the chi-rho. Here they bring wreaths and scrolls, while another set of wreaths is placed on their head by hands reaching from Heaven.
The wreaths represent the athletic prize that Paul commends to his readers in 1 Corinthians 9:24 and Philippians 3:14 ("I press towards the mark, to the prize of the supernal vocation of God in Christ Jesus"). There may also be an allusion to the "golden crowns" that the elders bring to the heavenly throne in Revelation 4:4,10.
Judging from the fragment, this sarcophagus differed from the other one in the museum in that the apostles' faces are more individualized, they hold scrolls, and stars are engraved above each of them.
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Read more about the apostles as a group.
Photographed at the museum by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.