Silver Denarius of Julia Domna

11 O'Clock
2 O'Clock
10 O'Clock, lighter
9 O'Clock

This coin bears a portrait of Julia Domna as a young woman, and was struck during the earlier years of the reign of Septimius Severus. The artist who prepared the obverse die very sensitively captured the details of Julia's facial expression. In particular, the modeling of the lips and the creases on her forehead are exceptionally lifelike. Julia Domna was a Syrian woman, and these same features can be seen in the faces of her descendents in sputhern Turkey and northern Syria today.

Lighting plays a more important role in the way images on coins are modeled than we may realize. Whether the light is soft and diffuse or hard and specular determines depth of shadows. The direction from which light comes determines the length of shadows and which features are in highlight and which are in shadow. This is most noticeable in the modeling of facial features. This coin is a favorite of the author's in that the effects of different lighting are quite pronounced on Julia's face in this example. Click the links above to examine the obverse of the coin under different lighting conditions.
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