Denarius (Coin) Portraying Julia Mamaea (231-235, issued by Severus Alexander): Artwork and History

Denarius (Coin) Portraying Julia Mamaea (231-235, issued by Severus Alexander) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Roman, minted in Antioch (in present-day Turkey).

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

The front (obverse) of this coin portrays the bust of Julia Mamaea, the mother of Roman Emperor Alexander Severus, facing to the right, draped, and diademed. On the back (reverse), the goddess Venus stands front, head left, helmet in right hand, spear in left, shield resting against her leg. Coins recorded the ever-changing hairdos of the royal ladies in Rome and carried the new fashions to the far corners of the empire.

Object facts

• Title: Denarius (Coin) Portraying Julia Mamaea
• Date: 231-235, issued by Severus Alexander
• Artist attribution: Roman, minted in Antioch (in present-day Turkey)
• Place of origin: Rome
• Medium: Silver
• Dimensions: Diam.: 1.9 cm (3/4 in.)
• Type: Coin
• Department: Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
• Reference number: 1922.4889

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.