Marcus Aurelius -with Roman dinaris 240 ad for brooch

27 oz. 7x3x2.5 inches. This bust includes a casting of an actual Marcus Aurelius denarius I purchased on Ebay. There seem to be lots of them around. In any case I added this as a "benny" so please don't insist on which side of the coin you get, as I cannot keep both on the shelf and perhaps I will eventually only make the HEAD-side instead of the 'tails'

BACKSTORY: A year ago we were at a craft show in Philadelphia for my wife's works. I had a small table showing my composers, and was working on my Paul Robeson bust. That day I had a request for Anne Frank, Sigmund Freud, Dave Brubeck, and TWO INDEPENDENT REQUESTS for Marcus Aurelius! That did it, of course. I had read his "Meditations" years before, but had not yet seen him in MGM's "Gladiator". But when I found out that Marcus was the adopted son of Emperor Antonius Pius, the bust of whom ALL my attempts at statuary were based - this piece had to be born.

My parents bought me a copy of his bust at the Barcelona City Museum in 1965...I'd had it on my desk ever since...whom I only knew as "Pio", not realizing who it actually was. So after pulling up copies of all the known busts of Aurelius, and with his father's bust in front of me, I created MY rendition of this incredible man. He joins Xenophon and Socrates in the antiquities collection of Trenton Cultural Castings (my company name). He shall be joined soon by a recasting of his father's bust, which seems to be no longer available from the Barcelona Museum....and which shall put my work to shame. It is better than any of those I saw on my image search on Google (except for the original of the one it was copied from....which is in white marble).

I do believe, however, that this version of Marcus Aurelius truly depicts the author of MEDITATIONS rather than the martial emperor leading the legions against the Visigoths in Spain and the German barbarians until the end of his life.

The patina was achieved with 3drops red & green food color & copper craft paint in a thimble-full of denatured alcohol and 3 puffs of graphite powder, rubbed to a shine with my palms in neoprene gloves and sprayed with acetate fixative.