Bellona

neptunka — Sun, 24 Nov 2019 16:54:32 +0000

Bellona, Roman God series, Niue Island 2016, 2 Dollars, 2 oz, 50 mm, pure antique finish without any unnecessary decoration, high relief coin, client: Mint of Gdansk, producer: Mint of Poland.

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According to the first coin in this series, Bellona was supposed to refer to a well-known piece of art. My client asked me to draw more dynamic scene than Jupiter‘s composition. I found “The Chariot Race”, a painting attributed to the Hungarian painter Sándor Wagner (Alexander von Wagner). Like in Hungarian piece of art, in my design the four horses (not the rider) become heroes of the whole scene. Bellona to whom the coin was dedicated, is not the main element of the composition, like it supposed to be…

The Chariot Race, attributed to Alexander von Wagner’s, an early version. Source: Wikipedia, public domain. There are other versions of this scene, painted by Wagner.

On the reverse of Bellona, wearing Roman helmet and armor, with a torch (symbolizing victory) in her right hand, enters to the circus on her quadriga. This is the chariot of Mars—god of war. Definitely Bellona is not a queen of beauty. Her face is rather terrifying, like Furies (deities of vengeance) faces.

I made many changes in my composition to make it different from the Hungarian painting. Due to the shape of the coin, the horse on the left has a different leg positioning. The hooves of the horses are protected by hipposandals — predecessors of the horseshoes in ancient Rome.

A shield with Medusa‘s head hangs on the Bellona’s chariot. In Greek mythology, Perseus cut the head of Medusa and gave it to Athena. Athena placed the head on her shield. From then on, the stone-turned gaze of the most dangerous of Gorgons, became the weapon of the gods. The face of my Medusa on Bellona’s shield is inspired by Antonio Canova’s famous sculpture “Perseus with the head of Medusa.”

Perseus holding Medusa’s head, statue of Antonio Canova, Museo Pio-Clementino (Vatican). Source: Wikipedia, public domain.

Roman legionaries are watching the triumphal entry of Bellona. They are identical to each other, like stormtroopers in Star Wars movies. They are ready to kill in the name of their goddess. In the background we see triumphal arch with small inscription “Si vis pacem, para bellum“. This is a famous Latin sentence of Publius Flavius Vegetius, a 4th century historian, meaning: “If you want peace, prepare for war”.

I really love this project. No unnecessary decoration disturbs the clarity of the coin composition…

First version of Bellona with dust clouds in the background. Later I added the Roman circus, triumphal arch and Roman legionaries.

Final design of the reverse.

Chariot harness — scheme for CAM modeller.

Design of the obverse with temple of Bellona. I invented the architecture of this building. This is not a historical reconstruction. In Rome, the temple of Bellona was situated on the Campus Martius (“Field of Mars” in Latin). In front of the temple was the war column (columna bellica). To declare war a bloody javelin was thrown over the column toward the direction of the enemy land.

Bellona — photo of the reverse. Unfortunately the sentence “Si vis pacem, para bellum” on the triumphal arch is invisible. This is probably due to the error in carving letters on 3D model. The letters are too shallow. On the obverse we have almost the same size of the font but the inscription is legible (see below).

Close-up view.

The obverse of the coin.

Goddesses inspired by Mucha

neptunka — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 21:43:06 +0000

Well, I do like to draw guys… This time, however, I wanted to create something more subtle, more delicate and finally feminine. A simple classical ancient Greek and Roman ornaments become unsymmetrical. Typography is in the Art Nouveau style. The both goddesses are inspired (consciously!) by the phenomenal artwork of Alfons Mucha.

Strong and Beautiful Goddesses series, Niue, 5 dollars, 2 oz, 45 mm, antique finish high relief coin, selective gilding, client and producer: Mint of Poland.

Strong and Beautiful Goddesses series.

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Victoria and Nike

Niue 2018.

The final design of the reverse.

My inspiration: the art of Alphonse Mucha. Source: Wikipedia, public domain.

Photo of the coin.

About this coin:

Photo of the coin: Power Coin Blog
“The best design of all time and over the world with women on coin.” / “Sympathetic design” (my own translation from Russian): Silver Stacking Academy 2 YouTube

Design of the obverse.

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Athena and Minerva

Niue 2019.

This is the sequel of the series inspired by artwork of Alfons Mucha.
Athena was the goddess of wisdom, art and war. Her attributes are: the owl (on her helm), a symbol of wisdom and the olive tree (olive branch in her hand), a symbol of prosperity. Athena offered the first olive tree to the Athenians…
Minerva, Roman goddess of war and art. She follows the Greek myths around Athena: on her helm we see Pegasus, a winged horse symbolizing artistic inspiration. Athena (Minerva) helped Bellerophon catch Pegasus with a golden bridle…

Athena and Minerva — design of the reverse.

The pose of my Minerva was inspired by this painting of Alphonse Mucha. Fruits. Source: Wikipedia, public domain.

Athena.

Minerva.

Photo of the coin (Berlin 2019, World Money Fair).

See the coin on Mint of Poland’s YT channel.

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Aphrodite and Venus

Niue 2020.

In my opinion, the third coin in this series, unfortunately does not reproduce accurately my design. The faces of both goddesses on the minted coin are not so delicate as on my drawing. What a pity…

Close-up view of my drawing and faces.

Aphrodite and Venus – the final drawing.

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Tyche and Fortuna

In Greek Tyche (Τύχη) means blind fate, blind luck or fortune. Tyche is blind—she has a gold sash that covers her eyes. Fortuna is looking at the roman coin with the personification of the fortune. Both goddesses were responsible for the prosperity of the cities: they wear city—shaped crowns, respectively Greek and Roman. In ancient art Tyche and Fortuna was depicted as carrying a cornucopia—a horn of plenty. The wheel represents the unpredictable turns of fortune.

The final design of Tyche and Fortuna.

A Roman coin with Fortuna. Dictionary of Roman Coins, Republican and Imperial (Source: Wikipedia, public domain).