Gold bust of Marcus Aurelius from ancient Aventicum, Switzerland
Weighing 3½ pounds and hammered from a single sheet of metal, this hollow gold bust was likely attached to a wooden structure that could be carried in ceremonial processions. The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (ruled AD 161-180) is identifiable from his many portraits in marble and on coins. He was a highly respected ruler, a noted Stoic philosopher and writer, and a successful general who spent the later years of his reign fighting Germanic tribes on the northern border of the empire. Here he wears a breastplate decorated with a winged head of the Gorgon Medusa (the aegis), symbolizing protection.
The round discolored area on his left shoulder, on top of a fold of his paludamentum (military cloak), is where a shield fibula (shield-shaped brooch) was once fastened, probably inlaid with precious stones.
The artistry of the work - the hairstyle, the large eyes, the forward-facing pose - seems to suggest that it may have been made by local Celtic craftsmen. However, that’s not certain.
The bust was found on April 19, 1939, in the drains below the ancient Cigognier sanctuary of Roman Aventicum (Aveches, Switzerland).
Roman (or Romano-Celtic), ca. 161-180 CE.
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Exhibited at the Getty Villa Museum in Malibu, on loan from its usual home in the vaults of a bank in Lausanne, Switzerland. A copy of the bust is on display at the Roman Museum in Aveches.
Gold bust of Marcus Aurelius from ancient Aventicum, Switzerland
Weighing 3½ pounds and hammered from a single sheet of metal, this hollow gold bust was likely attached to a wooden structure that could be carried in ceremonial processions. The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (ruled AD 161-180) is identifiable from his many portraits in marble and on coins. He was a highly respected ruler, a noted Stoic philosopher and writer, and a successful general who spent the later years of his reign fighting Germanic tribes on the northern border of the empire. Here he wears a breastplate decorated with a winged head of the Gorgon Medusa (the aegis), symbolizing protection.
The round discolored area on his left shoulder, on top of a fold of his paludamentum (military cloak), is where a shield fibula (shield-shaped brooch) was once fastened, probably inlaid with precious stones.
The artistry of the work - the hairstyle, the large eyes, the forward-facing pose - seems to suggest that it may have been made by local Celtic craftsmen. However, that’s not certain.
The bust was found on April 19, 1939, in the drains below the ancient Cigognier sanctuary of Roman Aventicum (Aveches, Switzerland).
Roman (or Romano-Celtic), ca. 161-180 CE.
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Exhibited at the Getty Villa Museum in Malibu, on loan from its usual home in the vaults of a bank in Lausanne, Switzerland. A copy of the bust is on display at the Roman Museum in Aveches.