CHAPTER 3 | THE EMPEROR’S PROFILE

Coins from Roman times often feature the profiles of emperors. Below a coin with the profile of Emperor Hadrianus Augustus and below that two coins with the profile of Emperor Nero. Even in our time, monarchs are still regularly depicted ‘en profil’ (French for ‘in profile’) on coins.

              

Exercise:
Step 1: Draw an outer circle of at least 10 cm. average and then an inner circle, using a drawing compass or a round object.
Step 2: In the inner circle, draw the profile of a family member or friend, supposedly as king, queen or emperor. As a helper, you can first take a photo of his/her head from the side.
Step 3: Come up with a text around it, in my case Imperator Caesar Rogerius MMX Romae (Emperor Rogerius 2010 from Rome). If you draw the text neatly in broken block letters, they almost look engraved. Make sure that your text fits well and that half of the circular frame does not remain empty.

If you would like to be emperor, king or queen yourself, let someone else take a photo of your own profile, so that you can draw your own head from the side.

Question: Take another look at these two coins. They both depict Emperor Nero. Apparently he wasn’t always portrayed in the same way, perhaps because they wanted to make him look more handsome than he was. Idealized (more beautiful than in real life) portraits are very common in art history. Which of the two bottom coins do you think most resembles the real Emperor Nero?