Image Details
A. Grabar, Martyrium-Recherches sur le Culte des Reliques et l'Art Chretien Antique (London, 1972), vol. 2, pl. XV, nos. 3 and 9.
This metal ampulla, or oil-containing vessel, portrays the tomb of Jesus with columns, entrances and a dome. A cross replaces the knob depicted on other Byzantine representations of the sepulchre dome and another cross appears on the surface of the dome. This vessel—only about three inches high—is now in the Monza Cathedral in Italy. The motifs are similar to that on the Coptic censer (see photograph).