Greek, Ptolemaic; probably minted in Alexandria, Egypt
About this artwork
Obverse: Head of Arsinoe II wearing stephane and veiled to right, tip of Ammon horn visible below ear Reverse: Double cornucopia full of fruit, bunch of grapes hangs from each side; tied with fringed fillet
Queen Arsinoë II, the daughter of Ptolemy I and the sister-goddess-consort of Ptolemy II, is honored on this coin. Under her veil is revealed the ram horn of the Egyptian god Amun, a mark of pharaonic royalty. This coin was issued posthumously.
Date
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Louise Berge and Karen Alexander, “Ancient Gold Work and Jewelry from Chicago Collections,” The Ancient World, vol. 11, nos. 1 and 2 (1985), p. 22.
Karen B. Alexander, “From Plaster to Stone: Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” in Karen Manchester, Recasting the Past: Collecting and Presenting Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), p. 29.
Roberta Casagrande-Kim, ed., When the Greeks Ruled Egypt: From Alexander the Great to Cleopatra. Exh. cat. (New York: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World; Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014), p. 64, 93, fig. 4-9, cat. 41.
Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Gallery 155, 1994 - February 22, 2004 and May 16, 2004 - February 2012.
Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The Centaur’s Smile: The Human Animal in Early Greek Art, February 22 – May 16, 2004.
Art Institute of Chicago, When the Greeks Ruled: Egypt After Alexander the Great, October 31, 2013 - July 27, 2014; traveled to New York City, NY, the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, October 8, 2014 - January 4, 2015.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Of Gods and Glamour: The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, Nov. 8, 2012 - June 30, 2021.
Martin A. Ryerson (1856-1932), Chicago; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1922.
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