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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 4552085, member: 75937&quot;]This unpublished coin depicts Venus riding a dolphin.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/faustina-jr-apamea-jpg.1126774/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>Faustina II, AD 147-175.</p><p>Roman provincial Æ 5.84 g, 22.0 mm, 7 h.</p><p>Bithynia-Pontus, Apamea.</p><p>Obv: FAUST[INAC AUG], draped bust of Faustina II, right.</p><p>Rev: UЄNU[S ... C]ICA dd, Venus seated right, head left, on dolphin swimming left, resting right arm on dolphin, uncertain object in left hand.</p><p>Refs: RPC --; Waddington <i>RG</i> --; BMC --; Sear --; Mionnet Suppl 5 --; Lindgren --; Wiczay --.</p><p>Notes: Apparently unpublished. Obverse die match to RPC IV.1 4729.</p><p><br /></p><p>While depictions of Aphrodite/Venus among dolphins are not uncommon in Greco-Roman art, I am hard-pressed after a rather thorough Google image search to find classical art depicting Venus actually riding a dolphin. In classical art, Eros/Cupid or one of the Nereids typically fill that role.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1127030[/ATTACH]Cupids riding dolphins. Mosaic of Venus, in the house of Amphitrite, 4th century, BC. Bardo Museum in Tunisia. <a href="https://imagery.trubox.ca/1605/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://imagery.trubox.ca/1605/" rel="nofollow">Image</a> is in the public domain.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1127041[/ATTACH]</p><p>Nereid riding dolphin, Apulian red-figure pelike&nbsp; c. 5th century, BC, J. Paul Getty Museum.</p><p><br /></p><p>Nonetheless, the figure on the coin is Venus, for the reverse reads UЄNUS and is the companion piece (struck with the same obverse die) as this coin featuring Neptune:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1127042[/ATTACH]</p><p>Waddington, RG, pl. XXXIX.1.</p><p><br /></p><p>I had to go well into the Renaissance before I was able to find other depictions of Venus riding a dolphin.</p><p><br /></p><p>Albrecht Durer&#039;s &quot;Venus auf einem Delphin&quot; 1503, <a href="https://www.wikiart.org/en/albrecht-durer/venus-on-a-dolphin" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.wikiart.org/en/albrecht-durer/venus-on-a-dolphin" rel="nofollow">Albertina, Vienna</a>:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1127045[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Agostina Veneziano, &quot;Venus Reclining on a Dolphin&quot; (after Raphael), 1515-1520, <a href="https://art.famsf.org/agostino-musi-agostino-veneziano/venus-reclining-dolphin-after-raphael-1963302794" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://art.famsf.org/agostino-musi-agostino-veneziano/venus-reclining-dolphin-after-raphael-1963302794" rel="nofollow">Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco</a>:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1127046[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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