Aureus (Coin) Portraying Empress Faustina the Younger (161-175, issued by Marcus Aurelius): Artwork and History

Aureus (Coin) Portraying Empress Faustina the Younger (161-175, issued by Marcus Aurelius) 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 Empress Faustina the Younger right, bareheaded, and draped. The back (reverse) depicts the goddess Juno (or Faustina) standing left between two children; extending right arm over a child and cradling an infant in left. Antoninus Pius, living up to his name, portrays himself practicing religious rites by making a sacrifice to the gods. His daughter the empress Faustina the Younger, was paired with an image of Juno who, as the wife of Jupiter, symbolized marriage and family and acted as the divine protector of children. Rome encouraged large families to populate its provinces and fill the army’s ranks. Faustina was the wife of Emperor Marcus Aurelius and mother of his thirteen children.

Object facts

• Title: Aureus (Coin) Portraying Empress Faustina the Younger
• Date: 161-175, issued by Marcus Aurelius
• Artist attribution: Roman, minted in Rome
• Place of origin: Rome
• Medium: Gold
• Dimensions: Diam.: 2 cm (13/16 in.)
• Type: Coin
• Department: Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
• Reference number: 1922.4877

Collection credit

Gift of Martin A. Ryerson

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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.