https://ancientrome.org/tags/faustina/ Recent content in Faustina on Ancient Rome Hugo en-us Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://ancientrome.org/faustina-the-younger-the-woman-behind-the-philosopher-emperor/ Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://ancientrome.org/faustina-the-younger-the-woman-behind-the-philosopher-emperor/ <p>The bust in the Altes Museum in Berlin is one of the more technically striking Roman portrait pieces in any German collection. The head is Carrara marble — white, fine-grained, the standard material for imperial portraiture — but the drapery is carved from a deeply veined breccia, red and brown and amber in layered striations that catch the light differently at every angle. The polychrome combination, fashionable in later reworkings of ancient busts, gives the portrait an unusual visual richness: the cool classical face above the warm geological drama of the clothing. The label identifies her plainly. Kaiserin Faustina die Jüngere. Empress Faustina the Younger. Wife of Marcus Aurelius. Marble, 141–175 AD.</p>