Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius Fleeing Troy

This terracotta sculpture, dating to the 1st century AD, was unearthed in Pompeii and is currently housed in the Palazzo Bellini Museum in Comacchio, Italy.

It depicts a poignant moment from Book II of Virgil’s Aeneid, where the Trojan hero Aeneas escapes the burning city of Troy, carrying his elderly father Anchises on his shoulders and leading his young son Ascanius by the hand—a powerful symbol of piety, duty, and the continuity of lineage.