Woodcut portrait of Marcus Aurelius, Goltzius's Icones

What it is

This is a colour woodcut portrait of Marcus Aurelius in profile facing right. He wears a laurel wreath and has curly hair and a beard. The inscription around the rim reads IMP CAES M AVR ANTONINVS AVG GERM SARMATICVS. The print was made from two blocks, in black and ochre, combined with letterpress text, and was published as illustration XVIII in Hubert Goltzius's Icones Imperatorum Romanorum, Antwerp, 1645. The Commons record names Christoffel Jegher as the printer and Balthasar Moretus II as the publisher. The image shows some printed text behind the medallion.

Why it matters

Hubert Goltzius was a scholar who studied Roman coins and used them to reconstruct the portraits of the emperors. His book was one of many that helped early modern readers imagine what the rulers of Rome looked like. The print shows the cooperation of a scholar, a woodcut printer and a publisher. It also shows that the emperor's appearance was reconstructed from objects, and that the image was made to look like an ancient coin.

Look closer

• Why was this portrait made to look like a medal or coin, and what does that suggest about the source?
• What is the difference between the colours and the lines in this woodcut and those of a modern photograph?
• What might the printers not know about the real face of the emperor, and how would that limit the picture?