Roma No. 2 / Vaticano

The oval basin and base are made of plum-coloured porphyry, which was formerly the sarcophagus that once contained the remains of emperor Otto II (previously Roman Emperor Hadrian's sarcophagus), buried in 983. The long basin is plain except for tore-and-scotia mouldings at the rim; the base, also made of the same stone, is plain except for a gilded bronze winged angel head and leaf motif at each side. These match the high-baroque ornamentation of the lid, a convoluted cover decorated with golden vegetal curls, chubby angels which hold a round salve-like plate in which the God Father and Christ sit at opposite ends, the whole akin back to the angels-held-mandorla of medieval iconography; atop a cake-like base lies the Agnus Dei holding up the bannered cross. Lees-Milne (1967) reckons that the lower part of the lid may "have served the same purpose for the remains of Emperor Hadrian", taken by the architect [Fontana] from the crypt of the new basilica where it had been stored; on removal, "it was dropped and broken into ten pieces, but was so skilfully repaired that the fractures are scarcely visible. The baroque "toppings" were all Fontana's design.