Most realistic portrait on a Roman coin?

Nero is probably the most recognizable emperor by his portrait alone. This tends to make me think his coins were very close to his actual appearance.
here are some from boyhood to adolescence, young man , and adulthood...



His later bronze issues seem to vary in style between the Rome and Lugdunum mints. I prefer the Lugdunum issues - they seem to be more florid and full of life as opposed to a more static rendition from Rome...

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I wonder if it make sense to see a progression from idealized portraiture under the earlier Julio-Claudians (...where would the supposed cut-off point be?), to a sharp increase in realism with Nero (a little ironically, in light of his 'career Naricissism'?), which is then accelerated during the ensuing civil wars, and sustained, at least initially, under the Flavians.
The portraiture under the Antonines and Severans strikes me, impressionistically, almost as a return to the 'idealized naturalism' of the earlier Julio-Claudians. Maybe the aesthetic equivalent of a "return to normalcy," however aspirationally, especially under the Severans.
It would be fun if someone who knows a Heck of a lot more than me weighed in on this.

 

Thank you! Yes, now that you mention it, the Hellenistic influence on the Julio-Claudians (and later, whether or not as directly) is unmistakable.

 

octavius, That is a spectacular group of coins of Nero ! The sestertii are gems .

 

In this one, Augustus looks very much like a real, regular dude with a messy mop of hair

 

Nice Domit!
There's certainly a good resemblance to this massive sculpture

 

I think that my most realistic coin portraits -- in the sense of looking the most like real, aging people -- may be on my denarii of Galba and Vespasian.

 

Disclaimer, for all that follows: Would it be a safe guess that you knew all of This? But that one looks suspiciously like one of the issues from Iberia (Tarraco, et al.), which, for Augustus, amounts to a provincial mint. First Augustus AE I ever owned was from there, and for the reign, the less than state-of-the art style was readily apparent.

 

Difficult to identify the most realistic portrait here , all are nice , especially the @octavius coins !
I will vote for the two Titus on the first page.

 

Thank you for this. The interval you identify (Civil Wars -Flavians) has to strike me as one high point of the influence of Hellenism on Roman coin portraiture. As noted by Magnus Maximus on the first page of the thread.
...Right, you knew this, but across several media, the Hellenistic aesthetic had that much to do with a shift from the idealized 'realism' of Hellenism to something more nearly approaching 'realism for realism's sake.' Often subtle, or even implicit, but often enough not.
And some overwhelming number of extant Hellenistic sculptures are copies from the Roman period. ...Likely as not by Grecophones, whether they were working in situ, or imported to Rome from (to mix historical metaphor) the colonies.
I have to wonder whether, at least from the reign of Nero, well into the Flavian era, an already powerful Hellenistic component was amplified, sometimes to a pitch of realism which rivals or even surpasses that of its prototypes. With the tenor of the times (most obviously during the post-Neronian civil wars) acting as one principal catalyst of the attendant acceleration of what was already, in the Roman context, a dynamic aesthetic trend.

 

For the Flavians, we are fortunate to have physical descriptions of their appearance. Suetonius tells us he had a perpetual strained look , or constipated. And we learn that Titus looked like his father.
Here is what would appear to be a pre and post constipation appearance of Vespasian (although the denarius was actually minted earlier than the as in the year 69)....



His sestertii appear slightly more idealized than his silver or small bronze...

 

Continuing with Titus (chip off the old block)...
I like the subtle but noticeable smirk on the first sestertius...



The first sestertius of Domitian looks a lot like his brother...



If I could chose just one emperor to sit down and chat with, and maybe have a beer or a cup of Falernian wine , it would definitely be Vespasian - mostly because he would be probably the least likely of all the emperors to kill me if we disagreed on something, plus he had an extraordinary and interesting career. Also, he was known for a good sense of humor, which is always an asset.

 

Great stuff ...granted, I hope Seutonius was resorting to the whole constipation thing as a convenient metaphor.... :<}
Also have to like your characterization of Vespasian. One could wish the same in regard to contemporary, duly esteemed heads of state....
Nope, there's Lots of 'em. Please, Don't Shoot!

 

We all know Nerva is always easy to find in a coin grouping.. just follow the nose.
This coin is certainly far from a great example but I do love lifelike aspects of the portrait.

 

@octavius all of your coins are simply spectacular!

Is your Judaea Capta denarius a transitional piece? The portrait resembles Vitellius and it was struck early in Vespasian’s reign. I’ve noticed a few denarii of Vespasian like this, but not with that magnificent reverse.

 

Nope, I'm needing to see some kind of working synergy between the 'unflattering' and 'more or less realistic' factors.

 

Here's where we could get into some serious weeds, on a theoretical level. Except, even aesthetically --suspension of disbelief is cordially invited-- isn't it Just Cool how Ugly Domitian looks, especially in that profile? I'm predisposed to think that any time art, in any medium, gets that Close to verisimilitude, it's Already beautiful. (Cf., I don't know, Hendrix, in an interview about his reading of "The Star-Spangled Banner.")

 

Yet you start with "nope".

 

Sorry for that. Meaningless rhetorical flourish. --Hey, this is a family show. According to authorial intent (and in this context, I get to be the resident expert), the actual, er, Content was what followed.