Portrait of Marcus Aurelius
Chronology: after 170 AD. EAM 572
Marcus Aurelius is depicted in the third type of his iconography. The hair is rendered in dense flammiform locks, while the luxuriant beard forms spiral locks worked in lower relief. The high forehead, the heavy eyelids, the flat, smooth cheeks and the partly open mouth evoke Classical models. The calmness and the self-control in the expression are due to the stoic philosophy, of which he was an adheren.