Art Institute of Chicago
Aureus (Coin) Portraying Empress Faustina the Younger
Roman, minted in RomeLinkedCulture matchlcp-e1eed953bf88
- Date
- 161-175, issued by Marcus Aurelius
- Medium
- Gold
- Culture
- Rome
- Department
- Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Object ID
- 5648
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.
The authoritative record is held by Art Institute of Chicago. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Get printable QR codesHide QR codes
Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.
Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Gift of Martin A. Ryerson
- Provenance
- Martin A. Ryerson (1856-1932), Chicago; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1922.
Linked open data
Authority identifiers that link this record into the wider web of cultural data — stable references you can follow to the source.
- Object type
- AAT300037334
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Art Institute of Chicago and other institutions.