AchillesANCIENT_SarcophagusPiranesi

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), "Sarcophagus of Alexander Severus and Julia Mamea", etching, in Le Antichità Romane (1756), vol 2 plate XXXIII. The 3rd-century AD sarcophagus was reputedly discovered on the south side of Rome in the Monte del Grano, between the Via Toscolana and the Via Labicana in the 16th Century; it was rumored to have entombed the Portland Vase. The sarcophagus, likely not Alexander Severus' nor his mother's, features scenes from the life of Achilles on three of its four carved side.

The scene on this face was taken up by Josiah Wedgwood and marketed as "The Sacrifice of Iphigenia", ceramic plaque (Jasperware with green dip and white applied reliefs), ca. 1795, on a design by Camillo Pacetti; London, Victoria & Albert Museum, inv. no. 4938-1901.

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