The Pashley Sarcophagus

This marble sarcophagus depicts the triumphant return of Bacchus from India, having 'civilized' the East with the gift of the grape. He is accompanied here by an entourage of human and semi-human co-revellers. The sarcophagus was discovered in pieces on the Greek island of Crete in the eighteenth century, but it is thought to have been made on the Italian mainland, probably in Rome. It must once have contained the body of a wealthy citizen of the empire, an individual who had put his hopes for the afterlife in worship of the wine god.

This photo was taken by a Kowa Super 66 medium format film camera with a KOWA 1:3.5/55 lens and Kowa L39•3C(UV) ø67 filter using Ilford Delta 3200 film, the negative scanned by an Epson Perfection V600 and digitally rendered with Photoshop.