How did a
bust or coin
portrait come to be? Did a metal carver, marble artist, or other actually make a
portrait of the reigning emporer and how?
So many coins were minted so quickly in some cases where an emperor only reigned for a few months that I wonder how a
portrait came about.
"Please stand
still Divine Emperor while I carve, commit to memory, trace, or use one of the gadgets the aliens left to us before they departed to the heavens?
Though in later times the images became rather
stylized, I find no information on how the (hopefully) accurate renderings of emperors profiles were initially obtained. And what about the artist's interpertation? I am aware that standards of beauty and handsomness were different, but everytime I see a coin of
Nero, I wonder why the artist was not crucified out of hand for showing the Emperor in a bad light.