Antoninianus (Coin) Portraying Emperor Balbinus (238 (April-June), issued by Balbinus and Pupienus): Artwork and History

Antoninianus (Coin) Portraying Emperor Balbinus (238 (April-June), issued by Balbinus and Pupienus) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Roman, minted in Rome.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

The front (obverse) of this coin portrays a bust of Emperor Balbinus facing right, with a radiate crown and wearing a cuirass and paludamentum. The back (reverse) depicts two hands clasped. Since few citizens actually saw their sovereign, recognizable symbols such as crowns, robes, and regalia served to identify the ruler on coinage. The ray-like crown depicted on Balbinus’s head associated the emperor with the sun much like a halo indicates a holy being.

Object facts

• Title: Antoninianus (Coin) Portraying Emperor Balbinus
• Date: 238 (April-June), issued by Balbinus and Pupienus
• Artist attribution: Roman, minted in Rome
• Place of origin: Rome
• Medium: Silver
• Dimensions: Diam.: 2.2 cm (7/8 in.)
• Type: Coin
• Department: Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
• Reference number: 1922.4894

Collection credit

Gift of Martin A. Ryerson

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.